


In Love We Are One

by Arvallen



Series: In Love We Are One [1]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: F/F, Post-Octo Expansion DLC, bad things will happen, my writing style will change as i go, still learning, this is a primarily agent 24 centred fic, this is my first fic on this site!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-01-18 17:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21280601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arvallen/pseuds/Arvallen
Summary: Agent Three is tasked with guiding the quiet and anxious Agent Eight around her new home of Inkopolis City, which she'd rather not be doing. The two are joined by the quirky Agent Four and they set off to explore! Three's emotional and physical scars get the better of her, Eight learns about living on the surface while slowly gathering courage, and Four is there to catch them when they fall... but will they be able to catch her?
Relationships: Agent 3/Agent 8 (Splatoon), Agent 4/Marie (Splatoon), Marina/Pearl (Splatoon)
Series: In Love We Are One [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581340
Comments: 59
Kudos: 119





	1. Scars, Omelettes and Social Anxiety

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! I'm Marceline, but you can call me Arvallen if you like. This is the first fic I've published online (even though I've been reading on here for many years), so let me know if there's anything I can improve on writing-wise, especially with grammar, spacing and legibility in general. I may also rewrite previous chapters if I really like a new direction I take and it conflicts with past work.  
Also, if you want them, here's my tumblr and twitter! Although I generally just retweet/blog stuff and don't talk much at the moment, I'll at least be posting updates for my fic and maybe even some drawings! https://arvallen.tumblr.com/ and https://twitter.com/arvallen_  
Anyway, on with the story!

_ **Her face felt like it was on fire. She screamed, but not a sound escaped her lips. Her body moved of its own accord, firing her Hero Shot at the terrified Octoling below her. Helpless to do anything, and in a world of pain, she watched as whatever controlled her body beat the Octoling to near death. She tried to move her arms, to claw at the teal goop that covered the right half of her face, but nothing happened. The Hero Shot aimed at the downed Octoling. The final shot was about to be made, and suddenly, she awoke.** _

Agent Three bolted upright with a yelp, hearts beating fast. She was in her bed, and tears were dripping down her face. It took about two seconds before she realized how badly her face stung.  
She reached up to touch her face and instantly winced, drawing back her clawed fingers to reveal that they were tipped in blood from gouging. Some of it had already started drying, but the cuts weren't done bleeding, its cobalt blue sheen slowly dripping down her face and onto her sheets.

_Damn it all._ She thought. _Third time this week._

Quickly she got out of bed, bringing her sheets with her to the laundry basket, then cleaned up the blood on her hands and face and started her morning routine. 

Three looked at herself in the mirror while getting dressed. A tall, scarred and battered form stared back. The right half of her face and ear was covered in a teal stain, scarred heavily, still bleeding slightly from her own claws. Her right iris was white and deadened, damaged by the acidic goop that had controlled her body inside of that terrible facility. 

_Disgusting. I'm disgusting._

Tucking her two long and heavily scarred tentacles behind her head, Three turned away from the mirror angrily and put on her pants before heading to the kitchen.

Three finished getting ready after having a simple breakfast, strapping on an eyepatch to cover her scar and blinded eye, as well as her cloak - emblazoned with the Inklish symbol for 3 - and ambled up the stairs into the back room of the weapons shop Ammo Knights, where she's been temporarily living since she'd gotten out of Kamabo Co.

Sheldon, a horseshoe crab and the owner of Ammo Knights, greeted her as she came up the stairs.

“Good morning, Agent Three!” he chimed, looking up at her from his work table due to his small stature. “You don't look too peckish, are you okay?”

“Morning. I’m fine.” Three grunted, her face still stinging, and walked out the back door, waving goodbye to Sheldon. 

“See you later, Agent Three.” He said, a worried tone to his voice, and turned his binocular glasses back to the weapon blueprints on his desk, lost in thought.

\---

Agent Eight awoke from a long sleep, feeling groggy. Ruffling her red tentacles and slowly getting out of the large bed the Octoling shared with her two friends, Pearl and Marina, she headed towards the smell of food in the kitchen.

“Mornin’, dude.” said Pearl - in Octarian - who, being very short, was standing on a stool helping her girlfriend at the kitchen counter. “Reena and I are making some breakfast; omelettes and rice. Go have a seat, food’ll be done real soon.” 

Marina turned around from cooking; her long black and green tentacles swaying. “Hello, Eight! I hope you had a good sleep, Pearlie and I got out of bed pretty early to prepare for our next live show.” she said, in the same language. 

“My sleep was alright, thank you.” Eight replied with a quick smile.

She sat down at the table in the living room with an excited look on her face.  
_Eggs are so good!_ Her eyes glowed and she waited hungrily for the meal.

“Okay,” Pearl’s shrill voice rang out from the kitchen after a couple of minutes of waiting. “Food’s done, buckle up!”

Pearl and Marina rounded the corner with food in hand, and set it all at the table before sitting down.

“Now who wants some MAYO?!” Pearl started enthusiastically globbing it all over her omelette and rice, switching between Inklish and Octarian as she spoke.

Marina’s brow furrowed. “I’ll stick to ketchup, and will do so no matter how many times you ask.” she muttered.

Pearl turned to Eight, waving the bottle of mayonnaise aloft.

“Hey, how about you, kiddo?” Pearl’s short white and pink tentacles flopped about as she reached over the table. 

Eight, who had no interest in having her meal covered in mayo, raised her hands and shook her head hurriedly. 

“I'm good, thanks.” She said hastily.

_Gross, gross, gross._ Eight frowned and started putting ketchup on her omelette.

Pearl, defeated, shrugged and said: “More for me then! Your loss. Not having mayo on everything is suuuuch a waste. Also what is up with you Octolings and not liking mayonnaise, huh?!”

Marina snorted. “Because we have TASTE, Pearl, and don't wish to cover everything with that garbage.” 

“EXCUSE ME?” Pearl looked affronted. “I’ll have you-”

Marina quickly interrupted. “We aren't having this argument again, even if you did win that Splatfest.”

Marina turned to Eight, who looked fairly amused at Pearl’s reaction. “Got any plans for today? I heard that Cap’n Cuttlefish wanted a word with you soon, something about Agent Three as well. They’ll be here around 20 minutes.”

Eight shook her head, and her tentacles curled up, anxious about what the old captain had to say to her and why Agent Three had to come here.

“Aw, don't worry about it, dear. It can't be bad. If you need anything, you can always call me on your phone.” Marina soothed. 

Breakfast ended, and Pearl and Marina headed out to their studio to prepare for the day’s announcements, although not before giving Eight a big hug and waving goodbye.  
Eight, now fully alone, got up to get cleaned and dressed, nervously awaiting the captain… and Agent Three.

\---

Agent Four was hungry, and tired. She had just finished a mission for the Squidbeak Splatoon in Octo Canyon, in which she had to find a stolen Zapfish that the Octarians had taken from one of the settlements around the outside of the canyon. She bundled up a ton of energy in her squid form and superjumped back to Tentakeel Outpost, the base of operations for the New Squidbeak Splatoon, and almost crashed into Cap’n Cuttlefish as she skipped inside of the newly remodeled shack to catch a break and get food. 

“Oh-oh, sorry Cap, just got back from the mission.” she stumbled, her short yellow tentacles and ponytail swaying a bit, and almost dropping the glowing Zapfish container tucked under her arm.

“Y’almost bowled me over there, Agent Four. It's quite alright though.” He croaked. ”You did well getting back that Zapfish. Deposit it and I'll get Marie to take it back to the settlement that needs it.” 

Cuttlefish leaned on his cane, his back bent, decreasing his height even further than it normally was.

“I'm about to head out to meet up with Agent Three and go to Marina and Pearl’s to see Agent Eight. I'd like you to join us at some point today, so please go rest for now.”

“Sure thing, Cap!” Four’s ears perked up, excited to finally meet this mysterious Agent Eight.  
She headed past him into the shack to eat and take a nap, wondering what was so important. 

\---

“I’m not babysitting her. I have better things to do.” Agent Three groaned unhappily.

“Excuse me, young lady, but you do not have better things to do.” Craig tapped her with his cane angrily. “You know full well that I can't send you on any more missions while you can't change ink colours. Besides, you don't need to babysit Eight, I just need you to be her friend and guide her. We’re going to see her now, so be on your best behaviour.”

Three grumbled under her breath but went along with him.  
_He’s right, I don't have anything better to do._ She scowled.

\---

Eight was huddled nervously twirling her tentacles on the couch when - very loudly - the doorbell rang, making her jump up into the air and release a high pitched squeak of fright. She stumbled hastily to the front door to let the guests in, but only stayed for long enough to open the door before shooting back to the living room.

The old squid and his companion turned the corner into the living area and sat down at the table. 

Three looked at the Octoling on the other side of the table, who was hunched up uncomfortably in her chair and looked spooked. She was pretty tall, almost as tall as Three herself was, but was thin and still kinda sickly despite having lived with people who fed her well for a week. 

_Still kinda pretty though._ Three blushed and looked away. _Wait, no, brain shut up! I can’t think like that._

Oblivious to Three’s glowing face, Craig put his hand on the table and grinned at Eight.

“Ah, Agent 8!” He exclaimed, “It's been a few days now since I last saw you. How have you been?”

The Octoling took a second, before giving a small smile and a thumbs-up, clearly still disconcerted by the loud doorbell.

“That's good, friend. Now, you're wondering why I’m here, and with Agent Three in tow, hmm?” Cuttlefish tilted his head slightly.

Eight nodded her head quickly.

“Well, since Pearl and Marina are busy ladies, especially with a Splatfest around the corner, I thought that it would be nice if I got Agent Three here to guide you around your new home in Inkopolis. What do you think?” He sounded hopeful.

Agent 8 felt her anxiety well up. _Being with Agent 3? Leaving the house? Interacting with Inklings? What if I mess up? I don’t know the Inkling language very well and it’s already hard for me to speak. What if all of the Inklings will hate me for being an Octoling? _

Her anxiety was palpable, tentacles hiding her face and her fingers twisting the tablecloth. 

“Easy there, buckaroo.” said Craig. “You won't need to do too much too fast, and you can rely on Agent Three to help you. She’s nice, I promise. Right, Three?” He glanced at Three, urging her to say something positive. 

She felt a bit torn. She really didn't want to look after someone else, but the Octoling’s distress urged her to help.  
“Yeah. I can help you for sure.” Three mustered a smile, hoping it didn't look fake.  
Apparently it didn't, because Eight seemed to calm down a bit and let out a small smile.

“Fantastic!” said Craig. “I'll leave you two to it, then. I have some great new rap lyrics in my head and I must go write them down before I forget. Oh, and Agent Four will be here soon.”  
Before Three or Eight could say a word, he was up and already at the door, humming to himself.  
They glanced at each other and then quickly looked away, both unable to start any sort of conversation.

\---

_ **Beep. Beep.** _

“Whadda what?”  
Agent Four shot up from her resting spot on the couch. Apparently she'd fallen asleep. She glanced over at her phone. The noise was her text tone. Feeling a lot better, she picked up the phone and read the message. It was from Cap’n Cuttlefish.

>   
**“Four! i've just talked with agents eight and three. head to pearl and marina’s apartment. their address was just assigned to your gps. i want you and three to look after eight and befriend her. chop chop!”**
> 
> **“Kay, omw.” she replied. **  


She rolled off of the couch and stood up, letting out a short yawn. After putting on some casual clothes, she headed for the drain that leads to Inkopolis Square, turned into her squid form and dived in.

_What is Eight like?_ Four wondered as she walked down the street from the square towards Pearl and Marina’s apartment. _All I know is that she's an Octoling, like Marina, and that she saved the world from this… goopy computer telephone with an underground testing facility that also happened to be in... a metro station?_

Four strolled up to Pearl and Marina’s place, which was an apartment in a long, plain white building surrounded by neatly trimmed bushes and basic looking lamp-posts.

_Not exactly what I expected from two pop idols and the current casters for Inkopolis News, but okay._

After studying the outside for another couple of seconds, Four knocked on the plain white door. No response. She went to knock again, but right before she could the door opened and she heard footsteps quickly move away.

“Uh, hello?” She called out. Again no response.

Confused, Four headed inside and took off her sneakers, closing the door behind her. While the outside of the apartment had appeared drab and plain, the inside of Off the Hook’s home was far from it. The walls were covered in funky decorations and awards, and there were posters and pictures from Off the Hook gigs and Splatfests, as well as a big Squid Sisters poster in the far back of the room, which was a living room/kitchen combo divided by a small wall.

Four looked towards the center of the room, and sitting at opposite ends of a circular table were Agents Three and Eight.  
Three, being closer to the door, had turned around to look at her. Her tall, imposing figure was not lessened by the fact that she was covered in scars, but Four knew that she was alright, having met her for the first time the day Three got back from that mission of hers, which had been a week ago 

“Hey! Nice to see you again, Three.” Four waved her hand as she walked towards the table and had a seat.  
Three nodded and a grunt came out of her mouth.

Four glanced at Eight, who looked very uncomfortable and nervous. Her deep purple irises seemed to take up her whole eyes as she stared at Four, pupils dilated like Judd’s at night.

“Hi there! You must be Eight. I’m Agent Four.” She grinned, hoping for a response. Didn't get one.

Three leaned forward in her seat and darkened her gaze at Four.  
“Why did the Captain send you here?” asked Three, eyes narrowed. 

“For the same reason he sent you, I guess. I had just gotten back from Octo Canyon with one of those stolen Zapfish, and he told me to get some rest, which I did, and then texted me to come here.” Four motioned with her hands as she said this.

Four’s mind drifted off as she looked at the two Cephalopods at the table with her. After a moment, she spoke again.

“Anyways, I uh don't know how long you two have been sitting here awkwardly for, but how about we maybe chat and get to know each other?” Four suggested, and she turned to Eight.

“So, I’ve heard a bit about you. Escaped an underground test facility, saved the world from an evil gooey telephone? Cool stuff, dudette.”

Eight nodded, smiled, and continued to pick at the tablecloth with her hands. 

Four looked at her for a second and tilted her head.  
“Not too talkative, huh? That's fine. There's lots of time to open up later. How about you, Three? What's been up?”

Three sighed heavily.  
“Been stuck in that basement of Sheldon’s with nothing to do but mess with old weapons, my ink still can't change colour and I'm blind in one eye.” 

She looked pretty distraught and angry.

Four gave her a pity look, which did not make Three any less upset.  
“Oh… Well, cheer up, Three, it’ll fix itself eventually.” Four did a double take and added: “I meant the ink thing, eh heh, sorry. I’m not too sure about that eye of yours.” 

Three glared at her. “Yes, because who wouldn't expect a heavily damaged eye to heal on its own.”

Four turned sheepishly away from Three and smiled at Eight.  
“So, uh, you wanna go exploring? Inkopolis is massive with tons of stuff to do!”

Eight shook her head, obvious unease on her face. 

_This Agent Four person seems nice… But I don't want to leave the house without Marina and Pearl… What if something bad happens! _  
Eight’s mind was racing and getting the better of her.

Eight’s tentacles instinctively covered her face again, failing to hide her worried look.  
Out of the corner of her eye Four saw Three fidget in her seat and she swore she saw her face light up a bit.

Four leaned in closer, which only made Eight pull back.  
“Hey, you're safe with us, nothin bad’s gonna happen. Besides, there's other Octolings out and about too. Most Inklings haven't noticed though.” 

Eight conceded and nodded, standing up. The other two rose with her and put on their coats.

“By the way, sorry if this is a rude question, but can you talk?” Four asked. “You’ve yet to say anything.”

Eight nodded her head and spoke with a stammer. “T-Talking is hard f-for me.” 

Three’s hearts nearly stopped. She had never heard Eight speak before, and she had not expected her to sound so soft… and cute. Even with the stammer.  
Three shook the thought away immediately. She can't have just thought that an _Octoling_ was cute.

“Is Marina teaching you Inklish?” Four asked. 

Eight nodded slowly. “Yes. Inklish is… confusing.”

She pointed at the kitchen. All over the place were little paper notes on different objects written in Octarian and Inklish.

“Ah, I see!” Four exclaimed. “Well, I can always help if you don't understand something while we're out, okay?”  
Eight nodded and appeared to calm down drastically.  
Three took a mental note to be the one to help with the language barrier, since she knew a lot of Octarian from Captain Cuttlefish.

“Let’s get going, then.” Three said, turning her undamaged eye to the hallway. “Be best if we were out there before the Square gets super populated, it’s only 6 AM.”

The trio got ready to leave and headed out of the door, Four in the lead. She was talking excitedly about something but Three wasn’t paying attention, as her facial scar was starting to burn. She promptly tried to ignore the stinging pain and closed the door behind her with a soft click. 

_Welp._ Three sighed heavily. _Here goes nothing._


	2. The Square, a Soda and the Runaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight, Three and Four make their way to the Square. Eight has a panic attack, Three consoles her and Four leads them to her favourite spot. 
> 
> Although not without a hitch or two, things go somewhat well. That is, until two strange Inklings show up looking for a certain yellow Agent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!! Finally managed to upload this. I'm sorry for the super long delay. A lot of not so good stuff has been happening recently so this tool a while, but I'll explain more in the end notes. For now, enjoy and don't forget to tell me if you have any suggestions to improve my writing or if you spot mistakes.
> 
> Thanks!

Eight lightly walked out of the front path of Pearl and Marina’s apartment with Four in the lead and Three in tow. She glanced around at the sparse buildings with apprehension as she trailed closely behind Four. 

The short yellow inkling stopped to lean over and fix a shoelace that she hadn't tied properly and then skipped over to Eight’s side, who had stopped to wait for her.

“So, you've only been here a week and you can already understand a lot of what I'm saying in Inklish?” Four tilted her head towards Eight while the Octoling fiddled with the hem of the rather large teal sweater that Marina had given her.

Eight nodded. “Y-yes, most of it.”

“That's crazy! You must be super smart, I've never been able to learn any other languages, let alone master Inklish.” Four’s eyes widened.

“I'm not very smart.” Eight replied, shaking her head as her tentacles curled up a bit. “Marina and Pearl are just good teachers.”

_ Marina is much smarter than I'll ever be.  _ Eight thought, eyes narrowed.  _ I'm just a soldier after all. _

“Oh, stop it.” Four laughed. “Accept the compliment, I've never heard of somebody learning a language so fast.”

“Hey, Three. Where should we go first?” She turned to Three, who was ambling along a fair bit behind. 

Three grunted as if waking from being lost in thought. “Uh… I dunno? We should take it slow, though.The Captain told me that Eight hasn't left that apartment since she got here.”

She turned her working eye towards the end of the alley they were heading through.

“It's still going to be quiet for a while, Inklings don't like getting out of bed early.”

“Why is that?” Eight asked. “Would it not be logical to get up earlier so the day is not wasted?”

“Inklings are very, very lazy. The vast majority of us would rather lounge around than be productive.” Three sighed and pulled out her phone.

_ How strange. Inklings are weird. _

Suddenly, Eight’s vision lit up as the trio rounded the corner of the alley into a large street, and the sun slid into view. 

_ It's so beautiful, and warm.  _ Eight felt sun rays hitting her face, and she smiled.

The moment didn't last very long, as Four had figured out what they were going to do.

“Ah! I know.” Four raised her hand and beckoned the other two towards her as she picked up the pace. “Most of the stores aren't open yet, but we can still show you around the Square anyway, and then pass through to my favourite… hangout spot.”

_ The Square? Four mentioned it earlier...  _ Eight had no idea what it could be.

“W-what's the Square?” She asked, clearly confused. 

Four pointed ahead towards the end of the street they were strolling along, her eyes lighting up.

“Around the bend over there is one of the entrances to Inkopolis Square, it's where all of the freshest Inklings, and some Octolings too as of recently, go to hang out, play Splat Battles, eat food and buy the latest clothing and gear.” 

_ Freshest Inklings? Splat Battles? What do those things even mean?  _ Eight had a ĺot to learn about Inkling culture, it seemed. 

“I d-don't understand. Freshest? Doesn't that have to do with food? What are Splat Battles?” 

Four stared at her, jaw dropped. “You don't know about being fresh? It's when you're the coolest around n’ wear the best clothes and-” 

Three interjected sharply. “It's a dumb culture thing that nobody should care about. Clothes should be practical, for one, and anyone who judges the worth of others off of how  _ “fresh” _ they are needs some checking up.”

Four glared at her. “Being fresh is NOT dumb.” She looked Three up and down, annoyed, who was wearing baggy sweatpants, a dull black coat with her roughed up cape over top, and some very damaged grey shoes. “You don't look like you know what it's like to be fresh anyway.”

She let out a  _ hrmph _ and quickly turned back to Eight, shifting her expression back to a smile. 

“Ignore her. Anyway, Splat Battles are basically like, the biggest thing ever. You and 3 other people fight 4 opponents in a match and, depending on the mode, there's different objectives. Turf War is where you and your team try to cover as much ground as possible with ink before the time runs out, and it's the main mode that everyone can play. Once you hit a high enough level you can play Ranked; which has a bunch of other modes. I'll explain those later though.”

_ Finally, something I can understand. At least I think. _

“Similar to an Octarian soldier…” Eight’s brow furrowed, searching for the correct words. 

“Uhm, training scenario?” She said, ears perking up. 

“At least, what I remember of them. I do not remember much... of anything.”

Four, surprised, raised her eyebrows and stared at Eight. “What?” She asked.   
  
_ Did I do something wrong? Oh no I don’t want to mess anything up please please plea- _

Four asked again. “Why can’t you remember anything?”   
  
“O-oh. I d-do not know. I am sorry.” Eight’s light red tentacles wrapped around her eyes and she turned her head away.

“Hey, it's okay. I forget things all the time, we can jog your memory later.”

Eight shivered as Four patted her shoulder, surprised at the sudden touch.

“Also, we’re at the Square now.”

Eight scanned side-to-side as the trio passed around the corner, and took in the view. 

An array of colourful shops burst out of the wall of a large rectangular building to her left. Across from them stood a weird looking yellow truck, some machines that she couldn't tell the function of, and a massive logo of two revolving arrows above a set of sliding glass doors.

_ It's so… bright and disorderly. In a charming way, I guess. Hopefully nobody is here yet. _

She slid behind Three and Four as they made their way towards the set of shops, trying to appear somewhat hidden.

“Hey, Eight. Look up!” Four pointed up towards a large screen attached above the entrance to a sky high tower in the back end of the square. “That's Deca Tower, the famous building that Off the Hook uses to transmit their news segments. Y’know, your friends Pearl and Marina? It's also the hub to sign up for and play Splat Battles.” 

“What's a news segment?” Eight asked, looking around to see if she could spot her friends transmitting whatever a news segment is. 

Three shoved her phone back into the pocket of her sweatpants and turned to Eight.

“News segment means  _ whra unelegat, _ Eight.” She said, her voice somewhat faltering as she tried to pronounce the Octarian words. 

_ She can speak Octarian? Why wasn't I told this?  _

Apparently Four shared her thoughts, because she quickly snapped her head towards Three and stared at her.

“Since when have you spoken Octarian?!”

“I learned most of what I know of it from Craig- I mean Cap’n Cuttlefish. It was a necessity if I wanted to figure out what the enemy was planning on the fly during missions.” Three leaned closer to both of them and drew them in as they walked. “Also, don't tell him I said this but sometimes he mumbles in Octarian in his sleep. It's weird.”

Four giggled and put her hand over her mouth to stifle it. “Oh, I promise I won't say a word.” She grinned and pointed up again as they approached the first shop, which still appeared to be closed. “See that up there, Eight?”

Eight tilted her head up and looked up the massive tower. It didn't just have one screen, it was lined with a bunch of varying shaped ones almost all the way to the very top. Something deep black with long yellow whiskers, the width of the yellow truck behind her and almost three times as long, coiled it's way around the highest point.

_ What is that and why do I feel like I've seen it before? _

“That's the Great Zapfish. It's the main source of power for all of Inkopolis.” Three grumbled. “I really hope that DJ Octavio doesn't try to break out and steal it for a third time.”

_ DJ Octavio… I know that name. _

The Great Zapfish stared off into the distance, seemingly uninterested in whatever was going on below it.

_ It's kind of cute. Can't shake the feeling that I've seen it before though. _

“What if it decides to just leave?” Eight asked, shifting her glance back towards her companions as they passed the first two stores. 

Four unzipped her bright blue jacket.

“It does, but not for very long. It loves being up high, y’see. For my sake I hope that it stays safe, I just rescued it and Callie a few weeks ago. Also, it's getting a bit hot out. Just me?”

Eight’s mind blanked when Callie was mentioned.

“Who’s Callie?” She asked, her tentacles flopping to the side as she tilted her head at Four.

Four’s jaw dropped for the second time. “Y-you don't know who Callie and Marie are?! The Squid Sisters! They're like, the most popular idols ever. They made Calamari Inkantation, for crying out loud. They're also Agents alongside me, and Three. You too now I guess.”

_ Oh. Right. The Squid Sisters. I’m so stupid. Calamari Inkantation changed my whole life and I can't even remember the names of who made it despite spending time with their grandfather. Why am I like this? _

“Ah-h. They're who C-captain Cuttlefish was talking about. His grandchildren. I’m sorry. Calamari Inkantation changed everything for me and yet I forget such b-basic things. I’ve forgotten so many things about myself, and my past, and I don't know wh-why. I’m so stupid. I should have never made it out of the Metro.”

Overcome with a sudden overload of emotions and anxiety, tears welled up in her eyes. 

She felt her tentacles cover her eyes to hide the sobbing, but it was too late for that. Involuntarily crouching down and grasping her legs, she tried to hide from it all.

Eight didn't see the look of worry pass between Three and Four. 

_ "What do we do?”  _ Four mouthed silently at Three, gesturing at the Octoling having a panic attack at their feet.

Suddenly, two firm hands grasped Eight’s shoulders and she lifted her face up in shock, only to come face to face with Three, her one good eye staring deep into Eight’s own. Unable to tear her gaze away, she watched a little trickle of cobalt blue ooze out from under Three’s eyepatch.

“Listen,” The heavily scarred inkling murmured. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay. You’ve not done anything wrong, and you’re definitely not stupid.”

Eight’s eyes followed the drop of blood as it made its way down Three’s cheek and dripped onto the pavement. 

“Y-You're bleeding.”

Three turned her head away, hiding her teal stained ear. A grimace twisted her already damaged features as she wiped the blood from her face with her sleeve.

“That's not important. What is important is what you’re feeling. It must be awful, having to deal with memory issues.”

A long pause filled the air. Eight was glad that there was nobody out yet to see them. Four fidgeted on the spot, clearly uncomfortable and wanting to provide some sort of input but was unable to.

“No I’m-  _ augh _ !”

As Eight fixed her composure and stood up, a searing pain arched across her back, causing her to flinch for a moment. Quickly recovering, she spoke again.

“No, I'm being silly. P-please ignore me.”

Three stared at her for what felt like a lifetime, completely at a loss of what to say. 

A rustling sound made Eight turn her head, as Four slid into Eight’s view, her deep brown eyes full of worry.

“Hey.. uh. Sorry for making you feel like that. You want to keep going?”

Three nodded at Eight encouragingly.

“Yes. Th-thank you. I’m sorry for falling apart so suddenly.”

Eight reached up and wiped the tears from her face. Taking a deep breath, she turned her head towards the glass windows of the store they stood beside. She peered inside and saw an array of colourful hats being put up for display by a short orange sea slug wearing a long purple shawl. 

“These shops that we are passing sell all of the freshest clothes. This one in particular is Headspace, run by Flow and Craymond.” Four said, motioning around with both hands. “They're still getting ready to open for the day though. We can come back later and we can get you some stuff!”

“That’d be… Nice. Thank you.”

“Then let’s get going!”

As they passed by the last store, Three pointed towards it. 

“That's Ammo Knights. They sell weapons there. I’m also living there temporarily, in the basement.”

Four glanced at Three. “How does Sheldon not annoy you to death?”

“I stopped minding his chatter a long time ago.” She replied, shaking her head.

They walked towards Deca Tower as a bumpy tune came into earshot, as if calling them towards the lobby under the tower.

“I’m sooo tired of that song.” Four groaned. “They never change it.”

She turned to Eight as they passed by the lobby entrance. 

“I'd get you signed up for Turf right now but it's too early to play, might as well do it later.”

Eight nodded and turned her gaze towards the building in front of her. Squinting a bit, she noticed a pair of familiar forms behind the glass. 

_ Marina and Pearl! They're here! _

Quickening the pace, she headed straight for her friends. They appeared to be deep in conversation with a serious looking Inkling wearing a suit and tie through Marina’s laptop. 

“Hey, don't run ahead like that… Oh, yeah. This is Off the Hook’s studio. They appear to be super busy with their manager right now. Another Splatfest is coming up.” Four said, pulling Eight towards the alleyway to the left of the studio. “We shouldn't disturb them. Come this way, my favourite spot is just ahead.”

_ Splatfest? All of these weird words…  _

Eight turned the corner apprehensively. She felt unease creeping up her back. Pain too, but she shrugged it off.

The sunlight dimmed as they entered the shadows of the alleyway, although it wasn't a very long one. Posters and graffiti littered the walls. Ahead of them, a gated off ramp leading down underground stood, and for some reason it made Eight feel even more uneasy.

“What's wrong? That's just the old entrance to the Inkopolis Metro.”

_ No, no, no this can’t be happening... _

Eight blanched and turned to run, but slammed right into Three. 

“Ouch. Hey, chill out. I very highly doubt that that's the same Metro station. It won't hurt you.” She said, catching Eight before she fell over backwards. 

Eight shivered, refusing to believe that. Her instinct told her to run. 

“Come on, there's no danger, my hangout spot is just past here.” Four pointed at the stack of large boxes blocking the path next to the subway entrance. “Help me move these dumb boxes that people keep putting here.”

Four struggled to lift one of the bigger boxes, and handed it to Three before her knees gave out. Three handled it with ease and dropped it to the side. 

“Wow you're strong. My arms felt like they were gonna fall off.” 

With the boxes out of the way, Four guided Three and Eight around the back of the alley, Eight hugging the wall opposite of the subway entrance, and up a flight of metal stairs on the side of the studio building. At the top was a small ladder attached to the roof of the building. 

“Just up here.” Four said, and started to climb.

“Uhh… Your hangout spot is on the roof?” 

Three sighed and grabbed the ladder. “This day is just getting weird.”

Eight reached the top of the ladder and stepped up onto the roof, the sun hitting her once again. 

The roof wasn't empty. A foldable chair was leaned up against the door leading down into the building below, and beside that were upturned boxes and crates. 

“Is that a  _ mini fridge _ ?!” Three exclaimed, pointing at a small black box that was plugged into an outlet on the wall. 

Four grinned and walked over. “Sure is. Don't ask how I got it up here.” She unfolded the chair and pulled up two crates before reaching into the fridge and pulling out some different coloured glass bottles.

“Have a seat, and a drink.”

Eight and Three sat down and accepted the drinks. Eight stared at the cold orange bottle in her hands in confusion.

Two loud pops startled her. Four and Three had opened their bottles.

“You uh, need help there?” Three asked.

“I-I'm okay.” Eight tried to open the bottle with her claws but failed repeatedly.

“Give it here.” Three gestured to the bottle. 

Eight handed it over, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Three flicked her thumb up under the metal cap and it flew off with another loud pop. She handed it back to Eight.

“Th-thank you.” Eight said with a small smile, her tentacles curling upwards slightly. 

Three’s cheeks turned a shade of blue and she turned away. “No.. No problem.” She stammered. “So uh… Why this place, Four?”

Four laughed and leaned back in her folding chair. 

“I like high places. It's secluded and nobody comes up here. Hard to find many places like that here that aren't sketchy as shell.” 

She took a sip of her drink and pointed down into the Square. 

“It's also fun to watch people down there sometimes.”

“Sounds more like a hiding spot than a hangout spot.” Three said, taking a large swig of her drink and pulling one of her heavily scarred tentacles back behind her head.

Four shrugged in response.

Eight looked down at the drink in her hands. It was bubbling. She carefully took a sip.

Her entire body convulsed as the weird bubbly drink fizzled down her throat. 

“What  _ is _ this?” She coughed. 

Four giggled. “Have you never had a soda before? Wow, you've been missing out.”

“Almost every type of food or drink I've had so far in Inkopolis has been new to me.” Eight tested the drink again, this time prepared for the weird fizzing.

_ Very sweet. Still feels weird. Not that bad though. _

“Hey, you two should add me on your phones.” Four said, excitedly. “That way we can meet up again easier.” She pulled out her bright yellow phone, which had multiple colourful keychains attached. 

“Ugh, fine.” Three pulled out her own phone and swiped it open. On closer inspection, it didn't have any keychains and the deep black case looked sturdy enough to take a hard fall.

Eight pulled out the light red Octophone that Marina had given her. She'd barely used it since she'd gotten it, mostly because she didn't know how a lot of it worked. 

“I don't know how to do that.” She said. 

Four had finished typing in Three's number on her phone and beckoned Eight over.

“I'll show you.” She took Eight’s phone and opened up the messenger app. “Oh, looks like you have a message from Marina. Anyway, y’see this button? Click it and you can add Three and I’s numbers.” She typed in both numbers and gave Eight her phone. “There you go. You should read the message from Marina.”

Eight tapped the icon that had Marina’s face on it. The text message was in Octarian

> ** _Hey Eight! Pearlie and I saw you heading past us with Agent Three and another girl. Hope you're okay! Remember to text if you need anything. _ **

Eight typed up a reply, using Inklish words when necessary.

> ** _i am okay. the other girl is agent four. she took us up on the roof of your studio. she also gave me a weird bubbly drink called soda. _ **

She pressed send. Only a few moments later she got a response.

> ** _On the roof?! Well, okay. You should be safe if you're with both agents. Enjoy your soda, dearie._ **

Eight put the phone back in her pocket and glanced over at Three and Four. Four was talking about something to do with agent work with Three half paying attention. 

Eight glanced out over the edge of the roof down into the square. Octolings, some Inklings and a few jellyfish had started walking into the Square as the shops opened up.

For a while, she just watched them mill about, occasionally listening to what Four had to say about agent work and life in Inkopolis. 

_ It's peaceful here. Four is right. _

Suddenly, she heard loud voices coming up from below. She turned to find them. A pair of adult Inklings were putting up posters on poles in the Square. 

“Has anyone seen this squid?” The blue, short spikey tentacled one yelled out.

“If you have, please contact us!” Said the other, who had multiple longer purple tentacles.

Suddenly the chatter coming from Four stopped. Eight turned her gaze towards her. She was tensed, and looked ready to run.

“We need to leave.” She said, her voice lowered to a strained whisper. 

“Why?” Three asked. “Are you on the run?” 

Four glanced at Three, fear apparent in her eyes. “Yes. I’ll explain later. Can we please go?” 

Eight and Three stood up and helped move Four’s stuff back towards the wall. The three of them quietly made their way down the ladder and the stairs.

“Three, please go check if they are gone.” Four whispered, motioning forward.

Three peered around the corner of the alley, and after a moment gave Four and Eight a thumbs-up. Quickly, they followed Four across the Square towards Ammo Knights. 

Eight glanced at one of the posters that was close by as they hurried along. It said “Missing” in bold text on the top, and below was a picture of an Inkling. Eight swore that it looked nothing like Four, but that may have just been due to how fast they passed it.

Coming to a stop in front of Ammo Knights, Four peered around, making sure nobody was looking in their direction.

She motioned to a bright orange rimmed grate on the ground beside the store and shifted into squid form, jumping inside. Three followed suit without hesitation.

_ A sewer? Ugh. Well, here goes nothing. _

Eight turned into octopus form and slid into the grate, darkness enveloping her as she fell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions of what to improve, let me know. 
> 
> Anyway, I said I'd elaborate slightly on the delay. 
> 
> To make things simple, there's a lot of family and money related issues going on right now, but on top of that my computer is breaking down and my 8 year old phone can barely run google docs, let alone upload a fic to Ao3. (Still managed after a while though!) 
> 
> In a week or so I should have my pc fixed, and I'll finally be getting a somewhat decent phone sometime this month. That means I can finish writing the outline for this fic and work on more chapters at my leisure!
> 
> In the future, I'll try to keep updates about progress on my twitter and tumblr if anything gets in the way of writing, so keep an eye out there if you like! Thanks again for reading, have a great day.


	3. The Outpost, The Idol and The Octarian DJ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight follows Three and Four into what appears to be a sewer drain, only to be whisked away to a floating island in the sky! Not a fan of this so-called Tentakeel Outpost, Eight tries to adjust to her surroundings, but is overwhelmed by meeting Marie, one of the two Squid Sisters, and DJ Octavio, captive leader of the Octarian society she had left behind. Four reveals some of her past, and Three is ready to help when things inevitably go awry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays and Merry Squidmas! I hope you're all doing well. 
> 
> I would have had this done sooner, but I've been busy working on a one-shot fic as a gift!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Eight hadn't expected the sewer grate she'd just slid through to not lead to a sewer, nor did she expect the sudden diffusion of her octopus form. She felt a rush of speed, as if her entire being was being pulled along to somewhere else very quickly. As fast as it had begun, everything went still and she flopped out of the other end of the grate in a state of shock, and shifted back into octoling form face-first on the ground.

_ Ugh, what just happened to me…? _

“Uh, Eight?” Three stared down at Eight from her spot on the ground. “You good?”

Eight quickly stood up and her back shot up in pain. She almost bonked her head into Three’s chin on the way up..

“Ouch. Yes. F-fine. What just happened?”

Three took a moment, remembered that Eight only knew snippets of her time as an Octarian soldier, and bumped the grate with her foot.

“Underneath this thing is a modified warp kettle. Takes you from one place to another within a few seconds. I have no idea how they work. The Octarian Army invented them and uses them to access their underground domes.”

_ Great, another thing I can't remember at all. _

“Also, they can take you really far.” She continued, raising her arms and motioning at the area around them. “This is Octo Valley, and more specifically, we're in Tentakeel Outpost, current base of operations for the New Squidbeak Splatoon. You might not want to peer over the edge.”

Eight looked around. In front of her stood a small wooden cabin and a stone archway leading somewhere else. To her left a tree and some squid shaped target bumpers, and to the right… the open sky. 

_ Oh. _

Shaking and falling over, Eight grabbed onto Three’s coat and almost pulled her down, but Three’s steady stance kept them both up.

“How h-high up are we?” Eight’s tentacles hid her eyes entirely and trembled slightly.

“I do not like massive h-heights. I also do not like standing on f-floating objects. This is both of those bad things.”

Three gently detached Eight from her coat and started walking towards the wooden cabin.

“Um… chill out? You're safe up here, there's anti-falling measures.” She said. “Also I'm not sure how high up we are but we can still breath so it's fine. Come this way, I'm not sure where Four ran off to.”

Eight hurried to catch up with Three, and cast a glance over the edge again. She could see mountain ranges and the twinkling towers of Inkopolis in the distance. Frightened, she forced her eyes away and followed Three close behind under the rocky archway.

Two voices floated into hearing as they passed through into somewhat of a courtyard, with a few flat looking kettles spread about. Over by a pair of wooden crates stood Four. Beside her, a beautiful grey and green tentacled inkling wearing a kimono and carrying a bright green umbrella had her hand on Four’s shoulder, comforting her. 

“... They put up posters too. I’m not sure what to do…” Four said to the grey inkling, with a fearful voice. Her dark brown eyes were rimmed with tears.

The grey tentacled inkling responded, and Eight recognised her voice instantly. 

“Did you see the posters? Were they accurate?” She said, her tone serious. She didn't notice Three and Eight walking up.

_ This inkling sung the Inkantation. Which Squid Sister, though? Callie or Marie? _

“No, old photo, but that's not important. They're still searching and I'm scared that they'll find me this time.” Four said, and turned towards Three and Eight as she heard them approach. Eight slid slightly behind Three as they came to a stop.

“Oh, hi, sorry for running off, I really needed to talk to Marie.” She said, and slumped over against the nearby crate, her face creased with worry.

_ So that's Marie… She matches her voice perfectly. _

Marie turned towards them in surprise and noticed Three. Smiling, she got up and walked over.

“Oh, it's Agent Three! I've not seen you in, like 2 months, you stin-, wait, who forced you into a shower?” She said, smirking. “Also, why are you wearing an eye-patch?”

“I was here 7 days ago. You just missed me. Also, nobody forced me into any showers, I did it myself because I'd been stuck underground for nearly a month. The eye-patch is a part of that.” Three groaned loudly. “Nice to see you too, jerk.” 

Marie’s eyes flitted over to Eight and did a double take. Her brow furrowed and she glared, lowering her umbrella and pointing it at Eight.

“Who's this? Four, Three? Where did this Octoling come from?” 

Eight sunk behind Three even more, which was hard considering that Three isn't particularly wide. 

Four opened her mouth to speak, but Three beat her to it. 

“This,” She stepped to the side, fully revealing Eight. “Is Agent Eight. Cap’n Cuttlefish should have mentioned her to you, right? She’s listened to Calamari Inkantation. It broke Octavio’s brainwashing.”

Marie’s glare faded slightly and she turned the umbrella away. 

“Oh, I thought he was going crazy or something when he mentioned all that. Hasn't talked to me much since he got back.” She spun her umbrella somewhat threateningly. “If what he said is true, you're alright, but I’m keeping an eye on you.”

Eight gulped and nodded nervously, unsure of what to say. 

_ She hates Octarians... What if I say something wrong? Her music changed my life. I can't risk her hating me too. _

“Not much of a talker? Slick, finally a change from listening to this blathering goofball all day.” Marie grabbed Four’s arm and started walking her towards the archway. “Would love to get all caught up with ya, Three, but Four needs me right now. Tag along if you want.”

The four of them walked back towards the cabin. Marie sat Four down on the small step as they reached it and Three went to grab something. 

Eight felt someone staring at her intensely, and she whipped her head around to see a pair of very large vibrant green eyes burrowing into her. In the back corner of the outpost, behind the grate she'd come through, stood a giant snow-globe housing a massive Octarian. He was wearing a black and gold ornamental helmet and shutter shades. 

She froze in fear on the spot.

_ DJ Octavio. That must be him. _

Marie brushed past and stood in front of her, giving Octavio a death stare.

“Hey, creep. I'd recommend you turn around.” She pointed her umbrella in his direction. “I don't care if this girl here was one of your vile Octarian soldiers, you ain't giving anyone a hard time under my watch, you wasabi eyed octoslob.”

Octavio returned her glare for a couple of seconds, but his eyes flitted towards Four and Three, who had finished dragging a blue couch towards the tiny cabin and was performing a violent warning gesture at him. He huffed, turning away.

“Good.” Marie walked back over and sat down on the step beside Four, who had her head in her hands. She motioned to Eight to sit on the couch, and then turned to Four.

“Now, Four, listen to me. Those freaks aren't gonna find you, and I will personally deal with them if they do. You don't need to be so worried, squiddo.”

_ Who are these “freaks”? _Eight swore they just looked like normal adult inklings, not whatever a freak was.

Four tilted her head up towards Marie.

“If you say so. I can't help but be afraid though. It's scary that they're still looking for me. I'm glad that the pictures aren't accurate, but they could probably still recognize me even if the people who see the posters won't.”

After a moment of silence, Three spoke up.

“I'm sorry, but could you explain who those people are and why they are looking for you? They didn't look like gang members.”

Marie started to speak, but Four grabbed her hand. 

“It's okay, Marie. I said I'd explain earlier so I might as well do it.” Four shifted on the spot uncomfortably.

“Okay, well, I guess I'll start from the beginning. I was born near Calamari County, just like Callie and Marie. Those two inklings _ were _ my parents, but I ran away from them 4 years ago and eventually ended up in Inkopolis.” She sighed and leaned back. 

“They weren't very… great to me, to say the least. The thing is, they really want me back, and they've been chasing me this whole time. I've only managed to evade them by going from city to city, changing my appearance and hiding in alleys and on rooftops at night. That is, until I stumbled upon Marie in the Square half a year ago. They'd not shown up for 7 months in a row, but today they did again.”

She paused, and stared off into the distance, deep in thought.

_ Whatever these “parents” are, they don't sound very good. _

“I see. That's pretty tough.” Three leaned forwards a bit. “Well, how was living in Inkopolis alone like? You seem to be pretty accustomed to the city, I thought you'd always lived there.” 

“It was never really hard.” Four replied. “Anyone can sign up for Splat Battles and get cash, so… I did that. I've never had enough to get a place of my own, only enough for small things, but I don't need one now, I live here.”

She rummaged into her pocket and pulled out her phone and swiped a couple of times. She turned the screen towards Eight and Three.

On the screen was a picture of Four and 4 other people. To Four’s left, an inkling boy with bright green tentacles in a neat bun, and to her right, a little urchin boy with one big eye. Behind Four stood a shrimp and yellow spider crab.

_ Who are these people? _

Four pointed to the screen.

“You probably know some of these guys, right, Three?” 

“Yeah.” Three pointed at the shrimp. “That's Crusty Sean. He runs that food truck in the Square now, right? The spider crab is his replacement as a shoe seller, Bisk I think? Don't know the other two.”

Four nodded and tapped the urchin. “This is Murch, he’s like, that creepy guy Spyke’s protégé I guess. Runs the whole chunk business now. And this inkling is Celbern. He's a tentacle stylist. They’re my friends.” 

_ Tentacle stylist? Chunk business? Are these jobs? _

She put her phone back into her pocket. 

“They helped me get comfortable here, and after that I started playing turf with Cel. He's really good with an inkbrush.”

Four turned to look at Eight. “You good? You've not said anything for a while.”

Eight nodded and continued to say nothing. She felt a panic creep up.

_ What do I even say? I don't know any of these people very well. Marie dislikes me too. _

“You don't look so great.” Three said. “Is the elevation getting to you? I told you it’s safe up here.” 

Eight cleared her throat but still struggled to make words come out.

“I… um. I am fine. Nothing is wrong.” 

_ My back is starting to sear. _She grimaced and her tentacles jolted as if shocked.

Four frowned and tilted her head, her ponytail flopping to the side. “Liar. Do you need to talk to Marina and Pearl?”

_ What do I do what do I do what do I do? _

Eight shot up out of her seat.

“Y-yes, I will d-do that.” 

Without running, she quickly made her way around the cabin and through the archway.

_ I could have just said no… or said that I'm fine more convincingly, or said something else. I'm so stupid, now they're worried about me when Four is the one that needs help. _

She sat behind the rock wall for a while and breathed uncontrollably, unable to calm herself. She couldn't make out what the other three were talking about. After almost 10 minutes, the talking stopped, and she heard someone get up. Footsteps sounded around the corner and Marie appeared in front of her. Eight jolted upwards, and her back flared again. It was almost too much to handle, but she tried to ignore it.

“Uh, hey. Eight, right? I... apologise for earlier. You may be an Octarian… but you saved my gramps. You saved Inkopolis. I'm sorry for not believing it at first. Three told me what happened down there, far more than gramps did. You've been through a lot of messed up stuff and made it out alive, and that's pretty rad. You're welcome to come and hang out, if you want to.”

Marie grinned sheepishly and offered her hand. 

“If you've listened to Calamari Inkantation, you're officially fresh. I wouldn't mind trying to be friends. What do you say?”

_ I want her to like me... I should accept. _

Eight slowly took her hand and Marie shook it.

“O-okay, let's go back.” Eight said, her confidence rising. 

The two of them went to sit down. Eight's back hurt more than it had since she'd last failed a test in the Metro, and the pain finally got the best of her. She fell forward onto Three as she tried to sit down at the couch, letting out a pained yelp.

Three caught her before she slid off onto the ground.

“Hey, hey, what's wrong? Did you trip?” She said, still holding Eight in place. 

“Argh… No, I-I’m fine, just need to- ack!” Eight's eyes filled tears. 

“I don't believe that for a second.”

Four got up and helped place Eight down on her back on the couch, which promptly caused her to shout in pain. 

_ It burns, it burns. Make it stop. _Even more tears streamed down her face.

“Oh, shell. It's her back.” Four said, and quickly turned Eight over.

“Three, please pull up her sweater and shirt. Without touching her back.”

Three’s face glowed blue at the prospect of having to undress Eight, but shook it off quickly and carefully pulled the sweater up to Eight’s shoulders.

The shirt was soaked through with blue blood, some of it already starting to dry.

Three grimaced and rolled up the sweater some more.

“I knew something was wrong, you’ve been making pained sounds since we left that apartment. Somebody get scissors and bandages. Now.”

Marie quickly rushed to open the sliding cabin doors and reached inside, over the top of the makeshift bed and into a tiny cabinet. She pulled out a pair of scissors and a long roll of white fabric.

Four took the scissors while Three kept the sweater out of the way, and she cut the shirt open from the side.

“This is going to hurt, Eight.” She peeled off the bloodsoaked shirt while Three got the sweater off over her head. Eight could only let out a whimper as her wounded back was opened to the slight breeze that drifted around the outpost.

All three inklings let out a horrified gasp at once.

“What the _ fuck _ is that?” Marie yelled, pointing at the massive teal coloured gash going almost all the way up Eight’s back. It looked like it had tried to heal and had reopened multiple times.

“That must be from those tests.” Three growled angrily. “Cap told me that every time she failed specific tests, a bomb on her ink canister would go off. I had no idea it had caused lasting damage. This entire area is stained... just like...”

She raised a hand to her eye-patch but quickly lowered it.

Four’s jaw dropped. “That's absolutely horrific. Why did you not tell us, Eight? Why did you not tell Pearl, Marina, anyone?! You've been on the surface for a week!”

Eight shook her head as best she could while face-first on the couch, tears still streaming out of her eyes.

“I w-was fine. I d-didn't want to b-bother anyone. I j-just- ARGH- moved too much.” 

That made Three visibly angry. 

“What do you mean you didn't want to bother anyone!? You moron, you've been in pain all this time and you thought nobody would notice, and now you're bleeding out because you let it get so bad! How did Pearl and Marina not notice?!”

She inspected the wound closely, somewhat repulsed.

“There's sharp bits of plastic embedded everywhere, that's why these wounds opened up again. None of it deep enough to pierce organs, I think, but I'm no doctor. What do we do?”

"Don't call her that, she's obviously afraid of asking for help."

Four dumped the bloodied shirt shreds into a pile.

"We should take her to the hospital. I've never seen anything this bad before."

"We can't, since she's only just got here she has no ID or anything to allow her medical care. Plus, that wound would lead to a _lot_ of questions and rumours, something that the NSS can't risk happening." Marie said, her tone steely serious again.

“Oh. Maybe I should go get some pliers or tweezers and we can take the plastic out?” Four offered, and started to head towards the grate.

A different voice boomed out, startling all of them.

“Idiots. You need to disinfect and clean the wound before you start pulling out anything. None of you are skilled enough to remove the plastic safely, either. Let me out and I'll fix her up.”

It was DJ Octavio, staring intently at the wound on Eight’s back. His expression was unreadable.

“And what makes you think we’d trust you, you creep. You just want her dead for deserting.” Marie said, hate filled eyes directed at the Octarian leader.

“Because I’m not just a DJ or a commander, imbecile. I taught the medics in my army their own job.”

Marie started to advance towards the snow-globe, pulling back the sleeves on her kimono.

“I'm not believing a word you say, you tyrant. Four, go get those tweezers.”

“So be it. That soldier will suffer and her wounds will become infected without my help.”

Octavio snorted and turned away again, and as he did, yet another voice rang out.

“He’s not lying. Let him help.” 

Everyone except Eight snapped around towards the grate.

_ That voice… that must be- _

“Callie!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, things are not going so well for our dear Agent Eight. Do you think Octavio really wants to help? Why did Callie suddenly appear to assist him?  
Let me know!
> 
> I'm not super happy with some of my character writing this chapter, but I wanted to get it over with and improve upon my writing in the next chapter.
> 
> Hopefully the next chapter will be much longer than any previous, I'll get to work on it as soon as I'm done this one-shot.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	4. A Wound, a Stain and a Salve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Callie has arrived! Eight needs help, and thankfully DJ Octavio is... also a doctor? After a bit of a struggle to convince the Agents to let him help, Octavio gets to work on cleaning Eight's wounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again!! I've actually had this done for a few days, but decided to look it over a few times to see if I still liked it. After a few edits, it's now ready to post. Hope you enjoy!

“Callie!” 

Marie turned towards her cousin and her jaw slacked from shock. Callie stood above the grate, wearing a pink beanie and sweater and carrying multiple bags. She looked somewhat exhausted.

Eight tried to turn her head to see the other Squid Sister, but the pain stopped her. 

_ It hurts so much… I don't care who helps me.  _ Eight thought, but couldn't open her mouth to speak it.

“What did you just say?!” Marie looked flabbergasted.

Callie tilted her head and let her loose, black and pink tentacles drop to the side.

“What’ya think I said, Marie? Let him help. Please trust me.”

Marie growled.

“You've been wearing those stupid shades again, haven't you?”

Callie tried to respond, but Four butted in. 

“Actually, I destroyed them like a week ago.” She said. “You should really still explain yourself though, Callie.”

Callie dropped her bags on the ground and walked over to DJ Octavio’s snow-globe prison. 

“I've been remembering things that happened while I was mind controlled. So I started asking questions and talking with Octavio. He… he wouldn't hurt this octoling, and if he tries anything he knows what’ll happen.” She gave him a warning look, and his expression didn't change.

“Just let me out, I'll fix her up and go back in.” Octavio grunted, turning his massive green eyes back towards Eight’s wounds. “No harm shall come to her.”

Marie groaned and thought for a moment. 

“What do you even get out of this anyway? Is Callie making you go soft?” 

The DJ snorted in disgust. He crossed his two front-most tentacles.

“No, fool. There's something-.” He stopped for a moment, lowering his shutter shades over his eyes. “I don't need to explain myself to  _ you.” _

Three finally spoke up.

“I don't see why we can't let him if we monitor things.” She said and pointed at Octavio. “I will never trust you, but if you can help Eight without her needing to go to the hospital, I'm willing to let my distrust slide temporarily.”

Marie, who still didn't look too pleased, turned to Eight. 

“Looks like I'm outnumbered, Eight. What do you want, he  _ was _ your old evil boss.”

Eight slowly and painfully moved just enough so she could see Octavio. He was still wearing his stutter shades. 

“I d-don't care. It h-hurts.” She said.

_There's no way he could hurt me with all of them around. I get the feeling he wouldn't anyway, though..._

“Well, I guess that's decided then!” Callie turned to Octavio. “What do we need to get?” She asked, pulling a card out of her pocket.

“Let me out and I'll write ya’ll a list.” Octavio responded, lifting his shades up again with a tentacle.

Marie walked over, tapped a button on the snow-globe, and stepped back as a shrill hissing sound filled the air. 

_ Pop! _

The snow-globe lifted up and DJ Octavio slid out from underneath. 

He oddly dragged himself out and then lifted himself up on four of his tentacles. 

Callie reached into one of the bags she had brought with her, and after a moment of searching, drew out a notebook and pen. She handed them to Octavio.

Octavio’s tentacles wrapped around the notebook and pen and he wrote out a short list, somewhat elegantly, despite not using any hands.

Eight stared at him in confusion from her spot on the couch. 

_ Why is he using his octopus form? Does he not have an Octoling form? _

Whether anyone else was thinking the same question, Eight had no idea, but before she could ponder further Callie had the notebook back and was motioning to Four.

“Come on, Four, I know where most of this stuff is!”

“Gotcha. Let’s do this speedy, yeah?”

The two of them quickly jogged towards the grate and slipped down in their squid forms with a splash.

The atmosphere immediately went cold as Three and Marie stared down Octavio, who tried to ignore them and kept his eyes on Eight’s back, inspecting it closely, even from a distance.

“I’ma take a closer look at her back.” Octavio announced, after several minutes of awkward standing around. 

Marie glared and stepped back slowly. She then busied herself with Callie’s bags, unpacking whatever was inside.

Three, who seemed a little more miffed that Octavio was approaching Eight, walked towards the injured octoling and stood close guard while Octavio’s massive form towered over the couch. 

Eight recoiled slightly but regretted the sudden movement, letting out a small cry.

_ He’s huge! Far bigger than he looked from inside that globe. _

She turned her head towards the couch to avoid looking at him, her tentacles curling up.

Octavio’s piercing green gaze focused on her back like a stage light, inspecting her wounds.

“What kind of ink caused this? This stain is like nothing I’ve ever seen.” He muttered, raising a tentacle to touch her back. Three’s hand shot out from her side like lightning.

_ Smack! _

“ GHRAAAAARGH! What was that for, punk?! ” 

Three kept her hand above Eight’s back defensively. 

“That ink.” She said, an edge in her voice. “Is the ground-up remains of hundreds of thousands of _your_ _Octarians_ that you apparently don’t care for. It’s also corrosive.” 

Octavio was stunned. 

“Wait, whah? The ground-up remains of mah soldiers? What kind of sick joke is this!?” 

“Yes, have you ever wondered where your rightfully deserting soldiers end up? They all turn up deep underground, in a vile place called Kamabo Co. Those soldiers either become worse than dead, or blended to bits if they pass many of the same tests that Eight here had to.”

“W-worse than dead? ‘Course I care for my-”

Octavio was interrupted as a loud splash announced the sudden return of Callie and Four. 

“We got what you asked!” Callie said, and pulled up a bag full of medical supplies. “Also, I took one of those missing person posters.”

She handed it to Marie, who had just finished laying out all of the seemingly random things from Callie’s bags, which ranged from a portable barbeque, to a spare set of Callie’s current outfit, to a large portable battery. Marie grabbed it hastily and walked off to the other side of the cabin to read it. Four looked after her worriedly.

Octavio turned around from Eight and Three and grabbed some supplies from the bag Callie handed him. He pulled out a white bottle labeled ‘Inkstain-Away’, a bundle of cloth and bandages, a rubber-gripped medical tweezer, rubbing alcohol and some weird green paste in a tube. 

Eight, who had turned her head around to see the commotion, finally got a good look at Callie.

_ She’s just as pretty as Marie…  _

Octavio readied himself over top of Eight with the rubbing alcohol.

“This is gonna hurt.” He said, and started washing the wounds. 

Eight cried and gritted her beak as the antiseptic poured into the gashes and cuts in her back, stinging. 

Octavio soaked up the remaining blood with a cloth and disposed of it, wrapped a tentacle around the ends of the tweezers and started gently pulling plastic bits out of Eight’s back.

Instantly she shook violently with the spike in pain and let out a yelp. 

Everyone jumped and Four started to advance on Octavio.

“Put her on pain relief!” She yelled, grabbing one of his tentacles.

“Can’t, she needs to stay ‘wake, and no meds will work fast enough to get this done without further risk.” Octavio said, and motioned at Three. “Hold her down so she doesn’t remix her already damaged skin with these tweezers.”

Three leaned forward and blushed, struggling to find a place to hold down Eight without touching her hips. She just ended up sitting on her legs, which she also didn’t seem to find comfortable. Nobody except Octavio noticed her awkward display, who rolled his eyes and said nothing. He held down Eight’s upper back with another tentacle.

Eight could barely feel anything but the pain on her back, but still noticed Three uncomfortably sitting on her upper legs. 

_ She’s so heavy… And I’m not sure how much longer I can keep conscious... _

Octavio slowly dug each and every tiny piece of plastic out of Eight’s back while everyone watched closely. Four sat down by her head and comforted her, but Eight barely noticed over the ever increasing pain and just kept crying and moaning in distress. 

After what felt like hours to the injured octoling, Octavio stopped using the tweezers.

“That’s, uh, every single piece.” He said, pulling up the rubbing alcohol again and cleaning some more. 

“I’m going to test this ink stain remover.” He dabbed some on another cloth and rubbed it on a corner of her teal stained back. It somehow felt like warm ice. Thirty seconds passed, and Octavio muttered to himself in confusion.

“Doesn’t work...? Blasted..” 

Four leaned over and spoke up. 

“Sooo, is she gonna have that stain forever then?”

“I dunno, it’s not like anythin’ I’ve ever seen. This product doesn’t work at least.”

Octavio wiped away the Inkstain-Away and started preparing a long bandage with two tentacles and applying the weird green paste all over the wounds with another. 

_ It’s so… cold and weird. Soothing though. _

“This’ll help heal the wounds.” He said, and started wrapping the bandage over her upper back.

“You, slimy meddler.” He motioned at Four. “Pull this end underneath.” 

Four sneered at him and dragged one end of the bandage underneath Eight’s chest, and handed the other end back to Octavio. They repeated this a few times until almost her entire torso was wrapped in a white sheet of fibres. 

“All done.” He said, and stood awkwardly for a moment before stepping back. “You can rest now, and you should be able to move somewhat normally in a day.”

Eight turned her head towards him and looked him straight in the eyes without flinching.

“T-thank you.” She said quietly, and turned away again quickly.

There was silence for a minute or so, with nobody knowing what to say. Four became very uncomfortable with the silence and spoke up.

“So… uh. What now?” 

“Octavio gets back in his globe.” Marie said, steely eyed. She had apparently been finished looking at the missing person poster for a while, and was watching Octavio intensely.

Octavio looked like he was going to argue, but decided against it fairly quickly. He tucked himself back into the globe and Marie lowered it again. 

“I’ll, uh...” Marie muttered, turning away. “Try to get you a bigger globe.”

She tapped Callie on the shoulder.

“You and I need to have a long talk. We’re going to our apartment. Four, call me if you need any help.”

Callie, obviously deeply annoyed, sighed and glanced at the huddled agents on the couch. 

“Ugh, fine. See you later, fellas. Sorry that we had to meet in such a state, Agent Eight. We can get to know each other another time.” 

The Squid Sisters waved their goodbyes and sunk into the grate with a sploosh. 

* * *

The air of tension lowered as the three remaining agents and Octavio settled down, with the latter turning away towards the short wall that blocked his snow-globe prison from the edge of the floating outpost.

Three was still sitting on Eight’s legs and had been too distracted by Callie and Marie’s sudden departure to notice.

“Hey, uh, Three.” Four pointed at Eight, who was too exhausted to say anything. 

Three blushed and shot up immediately. 

“Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.” 

Eight, who hadn’t wanted to say anything, pretended to not notice the exchange. She wanted to get up and move, but she was too tired to move a muscle. Her back still stung a fair amount but whatever Octavio had applied to her back was helping. 

“You should probably sit up, Eight.” Four said.

“O-okay.” Eight replied, and struggled to move. 

“Here, lemme help you.” 

Four grabbed her shoulders and helped her sit up slowly without twisting her back.

“Thanks.” 

With enough room on the couch for all of them now, Four and Three sat down on either side of Eight.

“So,” Four said, leaning back and folding her arms behind her head.

“Not an ideal first day out, huh?”

“N-no, it’s fi-.” Eight was quickly interrupted by Four.

“C’mon, you can’t be serious right? Look, I promise that next time will be a ton better, okay?”

Eight looked down at her feet. Her eyelids drooped as she felt exhaustion overtake her.

“Okay…” She said, her voice drifting off. 

They all sat in silence on the couch for a little while. Four and Three pulled out their phones and started scrolling away. Eight, who was trying to stay awake, stared out towards the horizon. The sun glared above them in the sky, signalling the mid-day. 

_ Why am I so tired? I’ve only been up for a few hours… _

Her eyes drooped, and she slowly drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought/if you have any suggestions to help improve my writing with a comment. Even if you don't, I'm just glad that you're here, reading this and my work. Thank you.
> 
> The next chapter will be a shift in character perspective. But will it be Three or Four? I guess you'll have to wait and see! Bye for now!


	5. A Pick-me-up, Mom Friends and a Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After such a crazy day, it's time for Eight to go home. Will her wounds re-open on the way back, and why did Off the Hook never notice her injuries?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! It's been awhile, hasn't it? Hope you're all doing well. Life's been tough recently, but I'll talk more about that in the end notes! Enjoy the read!

The noon sun shone brightly in the sky as the three agents all sat silently on the blue couch. DJ Octavio was still turned towards the corner, lost in thought.

Three looked to her left, at Eight. The octoling was breathing slowly, her chin lowered to her chest.

_ Is she asleep…?  _ Three pondered, and leaned forward to check.

Eight was indeed asleep. Her pinkish red tentacles twitched randomly every couple of seconds. Three stared, mesmerized.

_ She's dreaming.  _

Three caught herself and blushed, tilting backwards.

_ Should probably take her home. Her injury must have exhausted her. _

Three reached slowly over Eight’s prone form to Four, who was intensely typing to someone on her phone. She tapped Four on the shoulder.

“Hey. You.” She whispered.

Four didn't whisper back.

“Wha-” Four started to say, but Three quickly put a hand over her mouth and pointed at Eight.

“Eight is asleep.” 

Four mouthed an ‘O’ and typed one final message into her phone before putting it in her pocket and slowly standing up. 

“Should we wake her up?” She said, trying to keep her voice low.

“We should take her home, so yes.”

“Okay. Let me just tell Marie we won't be here.” Four said, and pulled out her phone again.

_ Guess I have to wake her up.  _

Three leaned down and tapped Eight on the shoulder lightly. 

“Hey, wake up. Gonna take you home.” 

Eight’s eyes fluttered open briefly, and she made an unintelligible noise. 

“Eight?” Three tapped her shoulder again.

This time Eight opened her eyes fully.

“Hhnng… huh?” She murmured, sitting up and stretching. “O-oh! I fell asleep. I'm so sorry!”

Four reached out a hand and helped pull Eight up. 

“Don't be sorry, your injury and stuff must have tired you out.” She said, and turned towards the exit grate to the Square. “Let's head out.”

Eight unsteadily made her way towards the grate, still very sleepy. 

Three and Four followed her, and they all shifted into their cephalopod forms and slipped into the grate one after another.

From his snow-globe, Octavio watched them go, a frown creasing his face. He turned back towards the wall, deep in his own thoughts.

* * *

Three was the last one to exit the grate. She shifted back into Inkling form and walked over to Eight and Four, the former of whom was having issues standing after going through the warp kettle in the grate for the second time. The Square was much busier now, and that didn't seem to appeal to Eight much.

“You good, Eight?” Three asked.

Eight nodded and stood up straighter. She looked around warily at the dozens of Inklings and a few Octolings that strolled around the Square leisurely.

“Okay, let's go.”

The trio slowly passed by the gear shops to their right and headed towards the street they'd come down earlier.

Four leaned into Eight’s vision. 

“I promise I’ll help you get a Splat Battle license next time, okay?” 

“That would be nice.” Eight smiled.

Three glanced at one of the missing person posters that was taped to a nearby lamp post. Upon closer inspection, Three could see the similarities between the Inkling on the poster and Four walking beside her. 

_ That tentacle style… I think I understand now. I will ask after we bring Eight home. _

They reached the street and headed towards the alleyway where Off the Hook’s apartment stood.

Suddenly, Eight lurched over.

“Agh!” She cried, and grabbed the nearest thing, which was Three’s arm. 

“Woah, what's going on?!” Three exclaimed, and steadied Eight. 

“B-back hurts b-bad again.” Eight stammered, catching her breath. 

Four shifted worriedly. “Can you walk still?”

Eight took a step. 

“I th-think so.” 

Carefully, the trio kept walking towards the alleyway. Eight lurched over again.

“I-It's too painful.” She said.

_ What do we do? Can't just force her to keep walking.  _

Four stood in front of Eight.

“Shift.” She said, “I can carry you.”

Eight looked at her confusedly. “Shift?” 

“Four is telling you to turn into your octopus form.” Three said.

“O-oh, okay.” Eight’s form wobbled as she transformed and sunk to the ground. 

Four bent down and picked her up. Immediately she struggled.

“Oh, you're a bit heavy.” She grunted.

“Four! Don't say that.” Three scowled. “Give her to me.”

“Hehe. Sorry, Eight, that was rude.” Four gently placed Eight into Three’s arms and stepped back.

_ She’s not that heavy… and kinda warm… Stop, brain. Stop. _

“Th-thanks.” Eight said, and closed her eyes. 

Careful not to jostle the Octoling in her arms, Three started walking again.

They marched in silence towards Off the Hook’s apartment through the alleyway. The lights were on.

_ Must be home for lunch. _

As Three reached the steps, Four was already at the door and started knocking.

A loud bump and a yelp rang out from behind the door, and it opened to reveal Pearl, her face cringing from pain.

“Oh, uh, hi. Sorry, I stubbed my toe. What do you guys want?” She said, clutching her foot and leaning against the door frame at an awkward angle.

After a moment to stare, Three regained her senses. 

“Uhm, hi, I’m Three, Agent Three. This is Agent Four. We’re here to bring back Eight.”

Pearl looked around for a second, and her eyes rested on the octopus in Three’s arms. 

“Why are you holding her?” She asked.

“Uh, about that… You mind if we come in?” 

Pearl nodded and turned back inside. “REENA, EIGHT’S BACK!”

The agents followed Pearl through the hallway, into the living room. Sitting at the table with a piece of toast in her hand, was Marina. 

“Hi there! You must be Agent Three, and...?” Marina paused, glancing at Four. 

The Inkling in question sprung forward excitedly. 

“Agent Four! Can I say that I’m a really big fan? I love your work with Pearl! Can I get a-”

“Not now, Four!” Three carried Eight towards the main hallway. “Eight is injured and has been for a while. Where’s her bed?”

Marina jumped out of her seat and rushed towards Eight, Pearl following close after.

“She’s injured? How? Follow me.” Marina brushed past Three and they all followed her into the main bedroom. In the centre of the room, a giant king sized bed covered with downy blankets stood. 

“She’s got major lacerations on her back. Happened down in the Metro, apparently, but healed over. Just reopened today.” Three gently plopped the octopus in her hands down onto the bed. “You can shift back now, Eight.” 

Eight shifted slowly and lay face-down on the soft blanket. The bandages wrapped around her body were still clean, no blood seeping through yet.

"Oh my…" Marina placed a hand on Eight's head. "I'm so sorry for not checking… you got blown up by that ink pack so many times. This is my fault."

Pearl held Marina's other arm. 

"I didn't check either. I assumed she was okay to bath on her own." 

"No, It's my fault. I didn't want to bother you with my injuries after all you've done for me." 

Pearl and Marina stared at Eight incredulously. 

An awkward silence hung in the air for what seemed like an age.   
  
“You’re… kidding, right?” Pearl asked, still in disbelief.    
  
“No, and I’m sorry.” Eight replied, and grimaced. “I should have said something.”

Three leaned over to Four and whispered in her ear.    
  
“It looks like they’re gonna be busy for a bit, let’s head out.” She then turned to Marina and Pearl. “If you need any more information, or any help, Eight has my number. We’ll be off, now.”

Four looked a little dismayed to leave the home of some of her idols, but she followed anyway, although not without waving goodbye to Eight.

* * *

The two agents walked side by side towards the Square in silence. 

Three stopped, and Four halted beside her. 

“What are we stopping for?” Four asked.

“I need to ask you something.” Three leaned up against a nearby building. “It’s about those posters.”

Four glanced around warily before responding. “What about them?”

“I looked at the image on the posters. You, uh, didn’t always look the way you do, yeah?” 

“No, I didn’t. What of it?” Four looked around again, as if checking for listeners.

“You can trust me.”

“Can I really?” Four sighed and leaned against the wall beside Three. “Fine. I’ll explain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally released another chapter! It's been a few months at least. I've been going through a lot of negative stuff recently, including leaving an abusive relationship with my ex-gf, and have had my urge to write come and go often. However, I'm feeling pretty good again, and decided to get to work on finishing this (already half done) chapter and start preparing for the next one. If you've got any interest in what's else has been happening, comment and I'll reply! Either way, thanks for reading. Have a wonderful day.


	6. Double the Opened Closets, Even More Eggs, and a Scream.

“I’m-” Four’s mouth closed abruptly. “Nevermind, I’m going.”

She started hurriedly scurrying away, towards the end of the alley.

_ Here goes nothing. Hope my hunch is correct. _Three thought.

Three called out after her. “I am too, y’know.” 

“Yeah, yeah, bye-” Four spun around on the spot and stared directly at Three in disbelief. “What?”

“We’re the same.” Three said, turning her head back towards the opposing building in the alley and closing her working eye.

Four slowly walked over to Three and stood in front of her. “So… you’re…”

“Yeah. Trans.” 

“I- I would've never guessed-” Four stammered. “You pass so much better than I do.”

“Nah. You're fine.” Three smirked and picked up one of her long, scarred tentacles. “Pretty sure my rough visage is just distracting enough to cover it up.”

“Well, uh… I'm glad I can trust you for sure, then. Thanks.” Four glanced towards the end of the alley for a second. “Let’s get a move on.”

  
  
  


The pair headed back towards the Square side by side. A couple of minutes passed before either of them spoke again.

Three glanced at Four’s short yellow tentacles and ponytail. “That Celbern guy you were talking about did good.” She said.

“Thanks, he’s really good at his job.” Four replied, reaching a hand up behind her head and feeling her ponytail. “I have a lot to thank him for, honestly.” She smiled to herself.

They were silent for the rest of the way to Sheldon’s store and the Tentakeel Outpost grate.

  
  
  


Three stopped in front of the door to the weapons shop, and turned to face Four. 

“I uh, guess I’ll be seeing you.” Four said. “It’s only one o’clock but I’m already exhausted, dunno why.”

Three nodded her head, turned away and reached to open the door. Her facial scar suddenly burned intensely. She winced and reached her other hand up to her face.

_ Damn it. _

“Also, I think we should go get Eight at some time around seven, is that okay?” Four asked.

_ I don’t have anything else to do, so why not. _

“Yeah, sure I guess.” Three replied, hands on the door and her face, with her back still turned to Four. “See you then.”

They parted ways, with Three clutching her face all the way down into her basement living space. She was not looking forward to spending the rest of the night in pain and with nothing to do but mess with old weapons.

* * *

Nine hours after arriving back home, filled with lots of fussing over Eight from Marina and Pearl, and after having a nice dinner of something that Pearl called ‘lasagna’, which Eight liked quite a bit, it was time to get tucked into bed.

Pearl and Marina slipped in on either side of Eight on the massive, quilted bed. 

“Eight, please tell us if you feel any further pain, okay?” Marina said, her green eyes full of worry. 

Pearl rolled over and patted Eight’s curly red tentacles. “I’d be real upset if I find out you’ve been hiding it, dudette.” She said.

_ I’ll try my best. _

Eight nodded slowly and closed her deep purple eyes, a soft smile on her face as she drifted off to sleep.

  
  
  
  


** _Quickened, scared breathing. A quick, terrified peek around the corner. Mistake. Run. Too late. Knocked over, barrel to the face. Vision filled with teal ink and-_ **

“Aaah!”

Eight bolted upright, her hearts pounding. Pain arced up her back from the sudden movement, but quickly faded.

A ray of lunar light reached across the room and onto the bed. The octoling and inkling sleeping beside her started moving. Pearl groggily opened her eyes and looked up at the upright Eight.

“You… ooookay… Eight?” She asked, yawning as she spoke.

Eight shook her head slowly and laid back down. “N-Not good dream.” She muttered.

Marina rolled over to face Eight and said, “You had a nightmare? Oh no… Let’s try to fall back asleep, okay?”

Eight nodded and closed her eyes again. She fell asleep instantly.

* * *

“Eight. Hey, Eight.”

The sound of Pearl’s voice and her hand tugging at Eight’s soft pink pajama sleeve roused the octoling from sleep. The morning sun shone through the window and warmed her face.

She opened her eyes and sat up with a stretch, which she immediately regretted due to a spark of pain.

_ Ugh. _

“Mornin’ bud, let’s go make breakfast. Marmar is already up.”

Eight scooted out of bed and slipped her feet into the pair of Squid Sisters slippers Marina gave her. 

The pink squid shaped alarm clock on the bedside table said 5:00 AM in bright red LEDs. Yawning, she stood up and followed Pearl down the hall.

Marina greeted them as they entered the living room, leaning out of the enclosed kitchen with a smile.

“Hey, Pearlie, good morning Eight! Your coffee is almost ready, babe. Speaking of, do you want any, Eight?”

_ Coffee? Isn’t that the energizing drink Pearl has every morning? Yeah, it is. _

“Uhm, sure, why not?” She said, sitting down at the table.

In the middle of waiting for the coffee to be done, Eight saw her phone buzz, which had been left on the table from last night. 

_ What does that mean? _

Nervously, she picked it up and opened it. A text notification appeared at the top of the screen.

> ** _Heya, eight. I hope u get this text and i didnt input my number wrong on ur phone. Is it okay if i come get u at 7 so we can hang out with three?_ **

_ Uhhh. What am I supposed to say? _

Eight stared at the phone screen without doing anything for multiple minutes, until Marina tapped her on the shoulder and placed a cup of coffee on the table in front of her.

“Thank you.” She said, and carefully placed her phone onto the table. 

The cup of coffee radiated heat. Eight wasn’t very fond of the smell. She grabbed it by the handle and tried to take a sip, but Pearl’s hand stopped her. 

“You don’t want to do that, ya goof.” She laughed, and drew Eight’s hand back down to the table. 

“It’s far too hot. And has no cream.” Pearl poured a bunch of cream in and mixed it. “Now blow.”

_ Blow? _

“Huh?”

“Like this.” Pearl blew air from her mouth at her cup of coffee. “Do it until you feel like it’s cool enough.”

Eight blew on her cup for a bit and tried again to take a sip. It was far too bitter.

“Blegh!” She spit it out with a grimace and her tentacles curled up.

_ Ewww, why do you consume so many gross things, Pearl? First mayonnaise, and now this. _

Pearl roared with laughter, as if she had heard Eight’s thoughts.

“Not your thing, huh? Me either, the first time.” She said, letting out a snerk as she did so.

Marina walked around the corner into the living room carrying plates. 

“Food’s all done! More eggs today, but this time scrambled with some sausage.”

_ Yes! More eggs! _

The trio dug into their food happily. Pearl and Marina discussed their plans for the day, but Eight couldn’t get her mind off of that text.

“Hey, Eight dear?” Marina leant over. “You got any plans for today?”

Eight picked up her phone and handed it to Marina. 

“Oh… You want to go out at seven?” 

The tips of Eight’s tentacles curled up as she thought.

“Uhm. Yeah, I guess.” She replied, taking back her phone.

She stared down at the message again.

“Havin’ trouble thinking of what to say?” Pearl asked. 

“N-no, I got it.” Eight said, and started typing slowly.

> ** _hello four. i would like to hang out. i will be ready at 7._ **

Eight’s thumb hovered over the send button for a couple of seconds before finally pressing it.

_ That wasn’t so bad. _

A few seconds later, the phone buzzed again, and a new notification popped up from Four.

> ** _Ill see u then!_ **

Nearly an hour later, after breakfast was finished, it was time for Marina and Pearl to head to work.

“Yo, we’ve gotta go now, bud.” Pearl said, putting on the shoes of her Off the Hook outfit. 

“We’ll see you later, kay? Have fun, but stay safe today.” Marina gave Eight a tight hug. “Please text or call us if your injuries start acting up again.”

Returning the embrace, Eight nodded and said; “I will. See you later.”

Her friends headed out the door, closing it with a soft clink. Eight went and sat down on the couch in the living room to wait for Four to show up.

  
  
  


Another hour passed, and Eight was curled up in a ball with her eyes closed in the corner of the couch.

** _DING DONG_ **

The doorbell rang out very loudly, startling Eight and causing her to almost fall off of the couch. 

_ Oh no. I’m still wearing my pajamas. _

She lifted herself to her feet with her hand on the coffee table and crept over to the door. Upon reaching it, she twisted the handle and slowly cracked it open. 

“Sup, Eight.” One of Four’s deep brown eyes appeared through the slit in the door. “Everything alright?” She asked.

“I-I f-forgot to g-get dressed.” Eight stammered. “I will.. Umm... Go do that now.”

“Alrighty then, I’ll just, uh, wait out here.” Four said, a humorous tone to her voice.

Eight rushed over to the bedroom and started grabbing clothes. While she was getting dressed, Four was opening her phone to message Three.

> ** _Are you on your way here? Im at oth’s place already._ **

She waited for a response, but nothing popped up for several minutes. She put her phone in her pocket just as Eight opened the door again, this time stepping out wearing a pink easy-stripe shirt, and some basic blue slip-ons. 

“You ready?” Four said, taking a step down the front stairs of the apartment. “Three ain’t shown up or responded to any of my texts, so let’s go to Sheldon’s and get her.”

“Y-yeah, okay.”

The pair walked down the steps and into the alleyway towards the Square. 

_ It’s a bit colder today. _

“Look at this.” Four motioned Eight towards her as they walked. She extended her arm, showing off a wristband. It was half pink and half green with little 4-point star icons.

“Cool, right? It’s Squid Sisters merch.”

_ Merch? _

“Um, yeah. What’s merch?” Eight asked. 

“Oh, it’s just short for merchandise.” Four replied, turning the band over. “Like, things you can buy to show that you like something.”

_ Oh! I want Squid Sisters merch too! _

“Where can I get some?” Eight asked, her purple eyes aglow.

Four gestured in the air in front of her. “The Square has a few stores. I can take you to some after we get Three.”

  
  
  


They rounded the corner of the final alleyway into the Square after a few more minutes of walking. Nobody was up yet, just like last time. Four led Eight straight towards Sheldon’s shop, and knocked on the glass door. 

A few seconds later, the door slid open. Eight looked around expectantly.

_ Where is he- Oh. _

She looked down. She hadn’t expected him to be a horseshoe crab.

Sheldon waved at them. “Oh, hello! Why are you here so early, Four?” He said, opening the door all the way. “And you are…?” He gestured towards Eight. 

“This is Agent Eight.” Four said, dramatically presenting the octoling. Embarrassed, her tentacles curled up slightly.

Eight waved her hand slightly and put on a smile.

_ I hope he didn’t notice my reaction. _

“We’re here to pick up Three. She’s not responding to my texts and she’s supposed to come with us today.” Four explained. 

“Oh, of course!” Sheldon led them inside. “I’ll go get her from downstairs.” He slid past the front desk and went through the door in the back.

Four and Eight could hear Sheldon knocking on Three’s door repeatedly.

“Why isn’t she responding?” Four whispered to Eight, leaning over the counter and looking down the open doorway.

The knocking stopped and the sound of a very creaky door opening rang up from down the stairs. 

A couple of seconds later, someone let out a piercing cry.

**“_AAAH, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!”_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!! It's been a while. A very nice person in the comments of the last chapter inspired me to come back and write some more. I hope it was enjoyable despite my rustiness, I've not written in a while.
> 
> I was feeling really out of it for the past few months, but I do have some good news! I got started on HRT in August, and outside of some possible liver issues it's been going alright! Also, today is 10/8, which is both National Lesbian Day and National Octopus Day! Hooray for Agent 8, it's her day today, and also Marina's. Go lesbians go!
> 
> I initially started this fic as a way to teach myself to be consistent when working on something. For a while, I failed, both due to depression and my easily distractable brain, but I've realized over the past couple of days that I can always try again, so I will. I'm going to have at least one new chapter out every couple of weeks to a month, if not even faster than that if I'm on a roll. I'm also going to stop writing summaries for these, since I feel like they don't add anything but small spoilers.
> 
> If you want updates on how the writing is going, you can follow me on my social media, which I will try my best to use for updates. 
> 
> Tumblr: https://arvallen.tumblr.com/ (I don't post as often here, and when I do it's reblogs of splatoon art and the occasional meme. You probably won't miss any update or new chapter release posts if you follow me here. Also, I don't often tag posts, just a warning.)
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/arvallen_ (I retweet things constantly here and talk a bit more, and it's usually not just splatoon related. Update/new chapter release posts might get buried.)
> 
> Alternatively, you can bookmark this fic to get email updates when a new chapter is uploaded!  
No matter what you do, thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!


	7. Seanwhiches, the Wrong Last Name and a Turf ID

“_ AAAH, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!” _

Sheldon's shrill cry rang up from down the stairs. 

Four glanced at Eight, her eyes widening in shock. “Let’s go check.” She said, hopping over the front desk and heading to the stairs. Eight followed suit, albeit timidly. 

_ I guess I get to see what Three’s home is like. _She thought, as she grabbed the railing.

They walked quickly down the stairs into the basement, arriving at the open door to what appeared to be Three’s living space.

Eight stepped inside and quickly glanced around. 

The room was small, only fitting a few pieces of furniture, including a small and unmade bed, an open closet with a few pieces of clothing, and a large desk in the corner of the room with a dissected charger laying on top. 

The walls, and everything, really, were sparse and undecorated, probably due to this being a temporary living space. 

_ How bland… she must get so bored. _

“Agent Three, do you need me to get medical help?” Sheldon said, his high pitched voice coming out from the bathroom on the other end of the room. 

“No, I can handle this.” Three’s gruff mumble was barely audible. “Please, let me be.”

Four and Eight peered around the corner into the bathroom.

Three, still wearing the same clothes as the day before as if she had slept in them, was standing over the sink, holding a paper towel to her face. 

Blood was seeping through it, making the paper towel dark blue.

“Yo, what the shell happened to you?” Four almost shouted.

Three almost dropped the paper towel and turned her face towards Four and Eight. 

Eight recoiled slightly. Three’s face was covered in scratch marks and shallow gouges, some of which were already starting to heal, but more shockingly to the octoling, was that Three wasn’t wearing her large eyepatch. More of her face was covered in that teal stain than Eight had expected, and her deadened eye stared into nothing, its iris white and faded. 

_ That monster did this to her. Good thing it’s dead. I wonder why she’s covered in scratches, though? _

“W-what are you two doing here?” She asked, exasperated, while covering the stained half of her face with the paper towel hurriedly.

Four crossed eyes with Eight again, this time her eyes full of worry. “We were supposed to hang out again today, remember? You didn’t respond to my texts. Also, again, why are you bleeding?”

Three sighed and looked down at Sheldon. “Please, lead them back up. I’ll be out in a couple of minutes, promise.”

Sheldon turned around with a dismayed look on his face, his narrowed eyes magnified by his binocular-like goggles, and beckoned the other two Agents to follow him back up the stairs.

“I’m sorry about that, she can be… quite stubborn.” Sheldon said, walking them back up to the front desk. He sat down in front of a large, blocky and highly modified looking laptop and started typing. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to do some cataloguing before I open up shop for the day.” 

Four walked over to the corner of the room and pointed at the wall. “Look, there’s some weapons on display.” She said, motioning at Eight to come over. 

“Here’s a pair of Splat Dualies!” Four lifted one of the small dualies off of the wall and presented it to Eight. “I love these, they were one of the first weapons I got good at when I was learning Turf War.” 

_ Oh, I’ve used these before. A lot. _

Eight looked around at all of the weapons around the room. Some were mounted on the wall, some in glass cases. “I’ve used all of these before.” She said, taking the Splat Dualie and inspecting it. 

Four looked taken aback for a second. “H-how? Don’t Octolings have their own weapons?” 

“Yes, but K-kamabo Co. had all of these. I had to use every single one countless times in my tests.” Eight replied, shivering when the name of that vile place came out of her mouth.

Sheldon looked up from his computer in surprise. “Oh, of course!” He said, raising his hand, as if he’d made the greatest discovery of the millenium. “That’s where all of those missing shipments ended up. I will need to get a new courier.” He then started typing away at his laptop even faster.

Four took the dualie back and put it back on the wall mount. She looked deep in thought for a second, and then her face lit up with a grin. “If you’ve used all of these and are good with ‘em, you’ll probably find Turf War super easy! After Deca Tower opens up, let’s go get you your Turf War ID, yeah?”

Eight nodded nervously. “S-sure, sounds fun.” She said.

A rustle sounded from the doorway to the basement as Three emerged, in the middle of putting on a simple black sweater. Her face was all cleaned up, although some of the cuts were still visible, and she had put her eyepatch back on.

“Uh… Let’s get going, yeah?” Three said after bringing out her long tentacles through the sweater top, walking past them and opening the sliding front door.

Four followed Three out the door and Eight followed slowly, taking another look around Ammo Knights before stepping outside.

“So… how’d you get all those cuts, Three?” Four asked, speeding up to walk alongside Three. 

Three reached her hand up to her face but quickly dropped it. “I-I uh, fell. Badly.” She said. “Anyway, what uhh, are we gonna go do?”

Four stopped in her tracks and grabbed Three’s arm. “No, seriously, why do you have those cuts, I saw that you were bleeding yesterday, too.” 

Three yanked her arm away and growled. “I said that I fell.” 

“Fine, I’ll play your game.” Four sighed and started walking again. “We’re gonna hang out for a bit until the Square opens up and then we can go get Eight her Turf ID.” 

_ Three isn’t very good at hiding things. _Eight thought, as she picked up her pace to walk with the other two agents.

The trio headed through the Square, towards the back alley beside Off the Hook’s studio. Eight didn’t see her friends inside when they passed it by. As they approached the stairs leading to the roof, Eight peered down the taped off tunnel into the abandoned train station nervously.

“I told you that it’s not the same one, Eight.” Three said, already halfway up the steps towards the ladder. 

Eight forced her head away and joined the other two on the roof. 

The air grew colder as they all sat down in the chairs that Four had opened up. They all took in the view.

The vast cityscape was still as strange, beautiful and overwhelming as it had been the day before to Eight, who promptly turned to look at the other agents. Four had already opened her phone and was swiping away, and Three was staring off into the distance, her eyes half closed. 

_ I want to know how Three got those cuts, but… I shouldn’t ask. It’s not my business. _Eight’s tentacles curled up as she thought this. 

Eight turned her head back towards the Square and watched as it and the city around it slowly came to life as Inklings and many other creatures awoke and opened up shop. 

She was so focused on looking that she didn’t notice Four stand up and walk over to tap her on the shoulder. 

“Eep!” 

Four pulled her hand away and laughed. “Busy down there, innit? I saw Crusty Sean open up shop earlier, his food is a blast, we should go have some before we go get you your ID.” 

“He’s in that photo on your phone, right?” Eight asked, standing up and letting Four put the folding chair away. 

“Yep! Good friend of mine.” Four replied, taking Three’s chair, who was already walking towards the ladder. “Let’s go, c’mon.”

The trio climbed down the ladder and headed towards the large yellow food truck on the other end of the Square, walking past a bunch of colourful Inklings and a few Octolings.

“I think I’m gonna get a Super Seanwich, what about you, Three?” Four asked, rummaging through her pockets for something. 

Three took a moment to react, and shrugged half-heartedly. “Huh? I’m not really hungry.” She said.

“Untrue, dude. You look half dead. Did you even eat breakfast?” Four teased, and pulled out a bunch of paper strips. “I’ll use my tickets on both of you. Don’t argue.”

Four led them to the food truck and stood in front, which luckily didn’t have a line yet, and waved at the person inside. “Heya Sean!” 

The tall prawn turned around at her call. He was wearing a weird fuzzy orange coat, different pair of shoes on each of his 8 legs, and a baseball cap turned the wrong way around. “Yo there, squiddo!” He said, waving a claw back, “What up?” 

“Oh, just showing a new friend the Square.” She pointed at Eight, who waved nervously. “This is Eight.”

Sean stared at the octoling for a second and then recognition showed in his eyes. He leaned in and said, “It’s good teh’ see Octolings round here more n’ more, pal. Now, what’ll it be?” He gestured to the chalkboard leaning up against the side of the food truck. 

The chalkboard had a list of items, including many flavours of drinks, the Seanwich Four had mentioned earlier, and something called a Shwaffle, which had Eight confused. 

_ I don’t know what either of those words mean. _

“I’ll have a Super Seanwich, please.” Four said, and turned to her companions. “What do you two want?” 

Three grunted and pointed at a name on the board. “A Special-Saver Latte, I guess.” 

“I’ll have two Super Seanwhiches, actually.” Four said, grinning. “You’re not getting away with that, Three.”

Three huffed and ignored her. 

_ I don’t know what I want… Is there a correct one to pick? _Eight’s tentacles curled slightly in worry.

“Uhmm…” She mumbled.

“Can’t decide?” Four asked, “How about a Crusty Seanwhich? It’s small, so if you don’t like it, it’s alright.”

Eight smiled and nodded. Four then handed a few tickets to Sean, who took them and put them somewhere underneath the counter.

“Alrighty! Time to fry, just wait a min.” He said, turning around and starting on the food. Four beckoned Eight and Three to follow her, and they sat down at one of the empty round white tables beside the truck.

Not even two minutes later, Crusty Sean called Four back over. She came back carrying a plastic tray.

“Enjoy!” She handed paper plates to Eight and Three. Laying on Eight’s was a small hot dog covered in tempura batter, and had some lettuce, ketchup, and a fake prawn tail on the end.

“Oh, it’s a weird hot dog.” Eight said, lifting it up carefully. It was pretty hot, so she almost dropped it. 

Four giggled and bit into her Seanwhich, which had a bigger hotdog inside and two prawn tails. “Shh, it’s a Seanwhich, not a hotdog. Don’t let anyone hear ya say that.” She said, her mouth full. 

She swallowed and turned to Three, who was drinking her latte and not touching the food. “Eat. I used my tickets on you.”

“Fine…” Three said, and took a bite of her Seanwhich. “Thanks.”

Blowing on hers first, Eight also took a bite. 

_ Woah. _

It was wonderful, just the right mix of savoury, sweet and crunch. 

_ This is the best thing I’ve eaten up here yet. _

“C-can I have this for every meal?” She asked, purple eyes wide as she devoured the whole thing in less than three seconds.

Four let out a snerk. “Only if you have the tickets. I get them from… I guess I shouldn’t talk about that here.” 

“Fried food is terrible for you, anyways.” Three said, finishing the last bite of her food, picking a napkin off of the plate and bringing it up to her face. She was bleeding again. 

Four grimaced, blatantly forcing herself to not say anything. 

“Let’s go get your ID now, Eight. It’ll be great, promise!”

The agents put their paper plates in the nearby recycling bin, handed the tray back to Sean and waved goodbye, and then started heading towards Deca Tower, next to Off the Hook’s studio.

As they passed by groups of Inklings and Octolings hanging around the Square, Eight heard the bumpy tune that had played the day before.

The tower loomed overhead as they approached, each of its many bright screens showing a different colourful ad, and on top, the Great Zapfish looked down upon Inkopolis. Eight leaned her head back as they walked to see. 

_ I wonder if it can see me from all the way up there. _

She lowered her head and read the large writing adorning the entrance to the tower, which had a large pair of light blue arrows shaped like squids crossed like an X in the center.

_ Battle… Lobby? Huh. _

Four ran up to the large, smooth metal sliding doors inside of the tower’s entrance and waved them over. “Come on, let’s get you that ID!” She said excitedly, and they all walked inside of a small room as the doors closed behind them. 

Eight’s eyes were immediately assaulted by a ton of bright colourful lights as the walls lit up with moving, stylized LEDs of very triangular squids.

She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times until she got used to it. “Whoah.” 

“Yeah, cool right?” Four said, and walked over to press a button on the wall. “We’re gonna go a few floors up.” 

_ Wait, what? _

Suddenly Eight felt a sudden upwards movement as the entire room started moving.

“Yep, it’s an elevator.” Four said.

Three sighed. “I wish they’d stop using these awful flashing lights. I hate coming in here.”

“They’re cool, quit whining.”

The elevator stopped moving with a halt and the doors opened. They stepped out into a neon light filled room. A voice from the other end called out.

“Hello, over here please.” Said a green tentacled inkling from behind a desk. She was wearing a black shirt with the words _ Battle Lobby _ written on it in many colours. “How can I help you three? 

“Hi, we’re here to get my friend a Turf ID.” Four said, and gestured at Eight. 

_ Oh please don’t make me say anything, please please plea- _

“Of course! Step right on up, what’s your name?”

_ Oh shell. _

“Umm, my name is… Eight.” She said, her tentacles starting to curl in anxiety.

“Eight, huh? How do you spell that?” The clerk asked.

“It’s… It’s like the number.” Eight responded, her heartrate quickening.

The clerk looked at her quizzically for a second. “Ookay, what about your last name?”

_ Last name? I don’t know what mine is! _

“Uhhh.” Eight had no idea what to say. 

Four came to the rescue! “It’s Ida.” She said, giving Eight a pointed smile. 

“Y-yep, it’s Ida.” Eight said, almost breathing a sigh of relief out loud. 

The clerk’s jaw dropped. “Th-th-that’s DJ-Hyperfresh… Marina’s last name- are you related?!”

Eight’s face flushed white in shock.

_ Four, what have you done!? _

“Yep, they’re cousins, don’t ya see it?” Four said, pointing at Eight’s tentacles and grinning mischievously. 

Almost leaning completely over her computer monitor to get a better look at Eight, who recoiled slightly out of instinct, the clerk stared at her for a second and then sat back down. “Y-yeah, I see it. Well, uh, let me set it up real quick.” 

After a minute or so of typing away at her computer, the clerk pressed a button on her desk and something popped out of the wall. She pointed at a marked spot on the floor.

“Stand there and look at the camera, need a picture for your card.” She said.

Eight nervously walked over to the spot and stood stock still facing the camera. 

“You can smile, if you want.” The clerk said. Eight tried to, but could only manage a nervous grin.

Suddenly a bright light flashed in her face, and the camera slid back into the wall. “All done. Just need to print out the card, and you’re set.” The clerk said, and stood up. She went into a back room, and came back thirty seconds later holding a little white plastic card.

“Here, take this. You’ll also need to install the Battle Lobby app on your phone and log in your Turf ID so you can track your scores! Have fun!” 

“Th-thanks. Bye.” Eight said, and turned to leave.

“Sick, let’s go, you two.” Four opened the elevator door and let them in. Once they were inside, she pressed a different button and the elevator started to go down. Immediately after, she let out a massive guffaw.

"Did you see the look on her face?! I can’t believe she fell for that.” Four giggled.

“Why did you do that? I’m not related to Marina at all.” Eight scowled. 

“Because it was hilarious and I don’t think Marina would mind. Also it's not like I can just tell her my last name, we look nothing alike."

Three groaned. "Yeah, sure, definitely hilarious and totally won't be a problem if half the city hears that the DJ of Off the Hook has a cousin. You could have also, y'know, made one up on the spot."

_ I really hope that doesn't happen... _

"Major doubt, honestly." Four said. "Also, show me that card, I want to see the picture.”

Eight turned the card over in her hand and they all inspected it. In the upper left ‘Eight Ida’ was written, with the words ‘Turf ID’ on top in big blocky letters. On the right, a picture of her. Eight’s tentacles were curled up halfway, her cheeks were a blue tinge, and her mouth was creased in a nervous grimace.

“Amazing.” Four giggled. “You look mortified.” 

“Better than my first ID picture.” Three said. “I looked like I died.”

_ Wonderful. Just great. _

The elevator came to a halt and the door slid open. They all stepped out, but not back into the Square, instead into a large room with a bunch of large stalls with large monitors inside. A bunch of Inklings were already inside, a group of each in every stall.

“This is the Turf War preparation lobby.” Four said, walking over to a stall. “Let’s get a match and play!” 

Three stopped in her tracks. “Wait, wait, wait, you do remember that I can’t change ink colours, right? Also I’m still half blind, that definitely hasn’t changed.” She growled.

“Duh, I’ll just request a teal ink colour to match you. Also, you’re still the best fighter I know, you’ll kick butt anyway. Just try to have fun.”

Three pondered for a second. “I-I guess it couldn’t hurt. I can always forfeit and leave if I can’t play.” She relented and followed Four to the stall.

_ I didn’t expect to be playing so quickly. What if I’m awful? _Eight thought. 

Four tapped at the large monitor in the stall. Two pictures of places popped up with names above them. 

“Oh, sick. Inkblot Art Academy and Kelp Dome. What weapon you gonna use, Three? I’m gonna use Dapple Dualies.” Four asked, and reached into her pocket for something. She took her own Turf ID out of her pocket and swiped it across a slot near the monitor. A different screen popped up with a bunch of pictures of weapons. Four tapped a picture of two pink things.

“Splattershot.” Three grunted, taking out her ID as well and doing the same. Her screen was completely full. 

“Whoah, you have so many. Your turn, Eight.” Four said. 

_ So many? Wait, I don’t have a weapon yet. _

Eight stepped forward and swiped her card. Only a single weapon popped up. It was labeled ’Splattershot Jr.’, and it looked like a rectangle with a handle. 

“Oh, yeah, every new Turf War player gets that weapon for free.” Four said, and tapped it for her. “It’s not bad, has a larger ink tank to help new players out. You won’t need that though, you’re good. It also comes with the good ol’ Splat Bomb and Ink Armour special.” 

_ Oh, I’ve used those before, but never tied to a weapon. _

She tapped a few more things on the screen, and it glowed teal and said ‘Grate 5’. Four beckoned them to follow her past the stalls. 

“Let’s go! Also, we’re gonna get a rando, but that’s fine. Most people are nice.” 

_ A rando? _

“A… rando?” Eight asked, tilting her head as they walked towards a large door with the number 5 on it.

“Oh, a random person.” Four replied. “It’s lingo.”

“Ah, I see.”

_ A random person? Oh no… _

Four opened the door for them and they all filed in. There was already someone inside, a young looking Inkling boy wearing a purple beanie, who was standing on a large circular pad on the floor. He waved at them as they entered. “Hey.” He said, smiling cheerfully.

Four waved back and grinned. She stepped on the grate next to him and the other two agents followed suit. 

Suddenly, a strange, rumbly voice rang out over an intercom. **“Lobby filled. Match will start once all players are equipped. Stand on the spawn point and receive your chosen weapons.” **

Hooks on either side of them rose out of the ground, each holding an ink tank and a weapon. Eight carefully took her tank and slipped it on, immediately getting a rush of anxiety as she felt the familiar feeling of a heavy ink tank on her back.

_ It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay. _She told herself, but it didn’t help much. 

She picked up the Splattershot Jr. and glanced at the others. Four and Three looked comfortable, and the Inkling boy did too. He was carrying a bucket of some sort, which Eight quickly recognized as a Tri-Slosher. 

**“The next stage is Kelp Dome. Shift and descend to start the match.” **The voice said. 

The three inklings did so immediately, and Eight followed after quickly, worried about being left behind. She floated for a second in dark nothingness, and felt a cold ripple as her ink colour was forcibly changed. 

Suddenly, ink rushed past her as she shot through some sort of pipe, although it was too dark to see how big it was. After what felt like ten seconds of constant, dizzying motion, she suddenly came to a halt and popped out of the other side.

She turned back into Octoling form, shaking her head as she did so to clear the dizziness, and stood up beside her teammates. Everyone matched Three’s tentacle colour now, a bright teal. Four smiled at her and winked. Eight shivered and looked around nervously at her surroundings. 

The arena was massive, there were paths and ramps branching all over the place, going over and around large glass containers. Eight looked up, and almost fell over in surprise. The entire arena was contained in a glass dome! A greenhouse, like the Octarians used to grow food deep underground.

“We’re gonna rock those fools on the other side, don’t worry. Just follow me.” She said, and readied her pink dualies.

**“Match starts in thirty seconds.” **The same voice as before said. Eight felt a slow itch crawl up her back.

Three shifted slightly into a combat stance, and Eight noticed a steely look cross her face. The Inkling boy gave all of them a thumbs up. “Good luck!” He said. Eight awkwardly smiled back and then stared straight ahead, starting to tremble in anticipation. A drip of blood seeped down from below Three's eyepatch, but nobody but she noticed.

**“Fifteen seconds remaining.”**

_ It’s fine, it’s fine, this is nothing compared to down there. I hope. _

**“Ten...”**

_ Everything’s gonna be okay, right? _

**“Nine... Eight...”**

_ What if it isn’t? _

**“Seven,”**

Her back injuries started to flare.

**“Six... Five...”**

_ What if I mess up? What will Three and Four think? _

**“Four... Three...”**

Eight’s brain flooded with thoughts of the Metro. Her back erupted in pain.

**“Two... One...”**

All of the countless times her body had exploded because she made a single mistake rushed through her head. 

**“READY?”**

_ What if it _ ** _hurts?_**

**“GO!”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's a fair bit longer than the last one, I had a lot more I wanted to write but I wanted to end the chapter before Eight's first Turf War. 
> 
> Let me know what you think by commenting! (Especially if you notice a spelling or grammar mistake lol, I'm always worried that I'll miss one when editing.)
> 
> Gonna work on the next chapter soon, I'll be changing my workflow so that I do short bursts of writing in between doing other things, just to see if that works for me.


	8. Turf War

** _“GO!”_ **

“Let’s do this!” Four shouted gleefully, running off while shooting her Dapple Dualies ahead of her. Suddenly she disappeared downwards, and Eight almost let out a cry. They were on a platform and she hadn’t noticed! 

A rush of motion raced past Eight as Three leapt off the platform, shooting downwards with her Splattershot and shifting into squid form as she went. She dropped like a stone and then sped off, inking and swimming in repeated motions towards the right side of the dome.

The inkling boy, instead of following them, turned around and jumped off of the other end of the platform. Eight’s eyes followed him as he started inking the terrain with his Tri-Slosher. 

Shaking, Eight tried to take a step forward, but her legs did not move and her back stung. 

_ Go!  _ Eight thought. _ You have to. _

After a few more moments of feeling stuck, Eight heard a soft sploosh behind her, and almost jumped in shock as she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

“You ok?” Four said, a slight worried tone in her voice. “I got splatted real quick, c'mon and let’s go turf the left side.” 

“O-okay.” Eight mumbled, shrugged off her pain and stuck close by Four as they hopped off the platform, shifting into their cephalopod forms and falling into the teal ink below. Four swam off, popping out of the already inked ground as she went to cover more area. Eight trailed close behind, tensing more as they went. 

The pair reached a bend, and Four popped out of the ink and beckoned Eight towards a nearby wall. The ground nearby was covered in hot pink ink. Eight’s tentacles curled up as the fear and anxiety became even more intense. 

“I got one of them before I was splatted, so they’ll be back here soon. I’m gonna splop a Squid Beacon down this time.” Four said, before throwing down a little teal machine onto the ground. It had a small, slightly squashed hexagonal radio dish and spun around in slow circles. 

Four tapped it. “I’ll use you later.” She said at the Squid Beacon, in a playful tone. Suddenly, she tensed and grinned. “You hear that? They’re back!”

With a flick, she pressed a button on her Dapple Dualies and rolled, as jets of ink shot out of the handles and propelled her sideways around the corner. “Gotcha!” She shouted, and Eight heard her unload her Dualies and splat someone. 

“Can’t out-dualie me this time! See, Eight?” Four said, as Eight stepped around the corner. “We got thi-” Suddenly, Four exploded into pink ink as she was hit full force by a charger shot.

“Haha! Got ‘em!” An inkling wearing a green beanie yelled, from on top of a grated metal walkway. She aimed her Splat Charger at Eight and started readying to fire.

_ No, no, no, no, no! _

A shot screamed past her ear as she turned to run. Eight’s deep purple eyes closed tight in panic.

_ I’m gonna get hit.  _

Her back flared like wildfire.

_ I CANNOT GET HIT.  _

An uncharged shot hit her shoulder. Pain. Something in her mind... clawed its way back up to the surface, and suddenly everything went dark.

_ Test Failed.  _

* * *

  
  


Four shook her head in annoyance as she emerged from the spawn pad. 

_ Should’ve seen that coming. Already happened once.  _ She thought, and shifted back into squid form. Concentrating her energy, she superjumped high into the sky, towards the beacon she placed earlier.

Landing with a splash of teal ink, Four shifted and stood up. She looked around for Eight. 

_ She can’t have gone far. Maybe she got splatted? Wait, is that her over there? _

Eight was sprinting full speed towards a small inkable wall leading up to a metal walkway while shooting her Splattershot Jr. at the charger inkling that had splatted Four.

_ Whoah, she’s fast. _

Eight reached the wall, and instead of inking it to climb, she jumped off a nearby step, landed nimbly on the walkway, and then readied a Splat Bomb and threw it; all in one swift motion. The Splat Bomb arced through the air, bouncing off of the railing when it landed and skidded to a halt behind the charger user, who stumbled forwards away from it as it exploded in a burst of teal ink with it’s signature pop. 

_ My cod, how did she do that?!  _

The charger user looked up as she regained her footing, only to find Eight’s Splattershot Jr. pointed directly at her face. Before she could even blink, she exploded in a shower of teal. 

“Hey, nice work!” Four cheered at Eight while running to catch up. Eight didn’t respond and stood still, facing away. “Eight?”

Eight whipped around on the spot, her purple eyes glazed over and unfocused. Her expression was unreadable and her tentacles were completely uncurled. 

_ What the- _

The Octoling turned sharply and immediately kept running across the walkways, her steps making clanking noises as she dashed across its metal surface. Four followed quickly, rolling with her Dapple Dualies to gain some speed.

Eight stopped at a central circular platform where all of the walkways connected, and she chucked another Splat Bomb towards where a Splat Roller user was fighting their Tri-Slosher teammate. It soared through the air and landed right behind the roller. 

Four spotted a shift in the pink ink behind Eight as someone swam up to the top of the platform from the other side. “Eight! Behind you!” Four shouted, but it was unnecessary. Fast as lightning, Eight spun around and unloaded the remainder of her ink tank into the Dualies wielding inkling that had tried to outmaneuver her. 

_ What the shell is going on? I’ve never seen anyone react that quickly. _

Just as fast as she had started shooting, she stopped, shifted into octopus form and sunk into the teal ink at her feet. She then swam off the edge towards the roller user, who had managed to dodge her Splat Bomb and splat their teammate. 

The roller user spotted her, lowered his roller to the ground and charged, his flat brimmed cap almost falling off as he barreled towards her, grinning. Eight ran straight at him.

_ What is she doing? She’s gonna get splatted! _

Right as they were about to connect, Eight turned on a dime and sidestepped, shooting at him as he careened past. He stared at her in shock, but shook it off. Quickly lifting up his roller, he twisted around, leapt into the air and swung the roller at full force. 

A horizontal wall of hot pink ink flew through the air towards Eight, and instead of bracing for impact, she just ran towards it.

The ink splashed harmlessly off her. She had activated Ink Armour in advance! It shattered and faded.

“Nice timing!” The roller user grinned, and lifted his roller over his head to swing again.

Eight said nothing and ran forwards, straight into the incoming roller head. 

“Eight! What are you do-” Four yelled and jumped off of the circular platform towards her. 

The roller descended upon Eight like lightning… and went completely over her as she smoothly slid underneath and shot her opponent point blank. He looked completely bewildered as he burst into teal ink, splatted.

“-ing.” Four stumbled to a halt in front of Eight, who had yet to get up off the ground and was laying on her back.

Four stood over Eight and looked down. Her eyes were closed tight, and she didn’t move when Four approached. 

“Hey? You okay bud?” Four asked, dropping a dualie and reaching a hand down for Eight. Before she could react, her world was turned upside down as she was yanked to the ground with surprising force. 

“AHH- Ouch, what the shell?!” Four yelped and looked up. Eight’s glazed over eyes stared back, her face betraying nothing… except raw, unadulterated fear. 

_ No- It can’t be- _

Four slapped Eight across the face with her now free hand. “OI, IT’S ME, FOUR!” She grabbed Eight and shook her. “Snap out of-” Four stopped talking and let go. She had tears on her face, but they weren’t hers. 

“I-I-I’m s-sorry.” Eight stammered. Her eyes were no longer glazed over, and instead tears ran down her cheeks.

“Eight?” Four stood up slowly and again reached a hand towards the sobbing Octoling at her feet. 

“I-I don’t k-know,” She sniffed and cried even more. “I d-don’t know what c-came over me.” 

_ I’m such a moron. I should have seen this coming. _

She grabbed Four’s hand and stumbled to her feet. “I’m s-sorry-” 

Four interrupted her with a scoff. “No, shut it, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about what effect jumping into this would have on ya.” 

Eight looked her in the eyes again, and wiped her tears away with her palm. “O-okay.” 

“Let’s go find Three and forfeit, this isn’t fair to you.” Four said, looking around at the catwalks and trying to spot over the white box walls. 

She spotted the inkling boy on their team fighting off the charger user and the dualies user on the further end of the dome, but no sign of Three or the fourth opponent. 

“Weeeird, I’d have thought I’d have seen either of them by now.” Four mumbled, and looked back at Eight. “Stay here and raise your hands, they’ll leave you alone.” She instructed, and started to walk off in the direction of the right half of the arena. 

Out of the blue, she heard a shout from above. It was the fourth opponent, who was wildly waving her Splat Brella in all directions, trying to get Four’s attention. 

“Hey! Don’t shoot! Something’s wrong with your teammate.” She said, a worried look in her face. 

_ Not Three too!  _

“What?! Lead me to her, quickly.” Four sprinted off towards the center platform, inked and swam her way up and looped around to where the other inkling was standing. They quickly rushed off across the walkways towards the other side of the wall. 

_ Where is she? _

Four looked around frantically as they rounded the corner, and spotted Eight trailing them slowly with a frightened look on her face. 

“There she is.” The other inkling said, pointing to something large and teal by bottom of the ramp that was facing towards the teal team’s spawn point.

“Three!” Four rushed over and leant down by the huddled, scarred inkling on the ground. “What’s wrong?” 

Three had her hands over her face. She turned slightly at Four’s voice. Blue blood seeped between her hands and dripped onto the ground rhythmically. 

“Heh-” She winced and coughed. “It’s- It’s nothing.” She turned away, her body shaking in pain. 

“That’s garbage and you know it. Show me, you twat.” Four reached for one of Three’s hands but Three just turned away even further and made an angry noise. 

“Back off!” She growled, still clutching her face. 

Having caught up, Eight appeared in front of them and hunched down in front of Three. 

“L-let me.” She said, reaching her hands for Three’s face. 

Three looked like she was about to move away, but decided against it. Eight’s slender fingers wrapped around Three’s and pulled her hands away from her face, getting blood all over them as she also removed Three’s eyepatch.

Everyone winced in disgust. Every cut on Three’s face had opened back up, and something... slimy... was oozing out of her dead right eye. 

“How did this happen?” Four asked, turning to the Splat Brella Inkling.

She stared at Three in horror for another second before responding. “Uh- I was dueling her around this area for a while, she was hard to hit and kept splatting me. Never seen anyone that skilled.” Four glared at her. “Y-yeah anyway she randomly collapsed and clutching her face. She wouldn’t respond to me so I ran to get someone.”

After starting at Three’s wounds for a bit, Eight started pulling off her pink and blue striped shirt. 

“W-what are you-” Three stuttered, barely concealing a blush on her face that, somehow, only Four noticed.

Eight, fortunately, had a sports bra and a fresh set of bandages underneath her shirt. She folded the shirt and started soaking up the blood on Three’s face with it. She tried to wipe away the weird slime from around Three’s dead right eye but stopped when she let out a stifled cry of pain.

_ Yeesh. That must hurt like shell. _

“Hey, uh, could you call the ref and tell them we’re forfeiting?” Four asked the Splat Brella inkling. 

She shook her head in response. “No use.” She said, shrugging. “Match is gonna end in a minute.”

Four grabbed her phone from her pocket and opened up the messaging app, and then scrolled to ‘Old Coot’.

> **"Cap, weve got a bit of an issue. Threes hurt and we probably shouldnt take her to the hospital, so im gonna need u to prepare space at the outpost."**

She hit send and shoved the phone back in her pocket, and tapped Three on the shoulder. “Can you walk?”

Three abruptly stood up and almost fell back over, clearly unbalanced. “Y-yep, just let me- ugh- regain my footing.” 

She leant onto Eight without thinking, and tried to pull away when she realized, but Eight just wrapped the shirt around her face and started leading her forward. Four picked up the gross, bloody eyepatch off the ground and caught up with them, putting Three’s arm over her shoulder as she matched their pace.

The trio of agents and the Splat Brella user parted ways as they headed back to their respective spawn points. Right as they reached the spawn platform, the announcer voice spoke. 

** _“Match Over in... Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One… Finish!”_ **

There was a drumroll for a couple of seconds, but none of them were paying attention. Their Tri-Slosher teammate had superjumped back to the spawn point and looked at them quizzically, but didn’t say anything.

** _“Results are in… Pink Team Wins!”_ **

“Yeah, yeah, just let us out.” Three grumbled through gritted teeth. 

They shifted into their cephalopod forms and sunk into the spawn pad, and it quickly transported them away, back to the Deca Tower. 

* * *

  
  


Eight stood up next to her friends as they emerged from the floor, back into the Turf War lobby. All of their colours had returned to how they were before, excluding Three. Her back still ached, but the pain was much less severe than earlier. Propping up Three against her shoulder, who grunted in pain and pressed the shirt towards her face, Eight looked around. 

The young inkling boy on their team left quickly, without saying a word, and they saw the enemy team file out of another nearby room. The Splat Brella user looked in their direction with a worried smile before walking off at a brisk pace. 

“Let’s get out of here.” Four said quietly, leading them to the elevator. They entered in right as it opened, and luckily nobody else entered with them. Four pressed a button, and the lights started flashing from the walls.

_ I am starting to dislike those lights already.  _ Eight thought, closing her eyes to block it out, although it didn’t really help.

Three’s blood had almost completely soaked through a portion of the folded shirt, and she seemed to be getting even more unsteady. One of her two long, scarred tentacles somehow wrapped itself around Eight’s other shoulder as they jostled about in the elevator. 

_ Heavy. How does she live with such long tentacles? _

With a clunk and a slight shake, the elevator room’s door split open and light poured in from outside. The trio of agents stepped out into the Square, and started to make a beeline straight for the grate by Ammo Knights.

Eight shivered slightly, suddenly remembering that she didn’t have a shirt on anymore. She looked around nervously to see if anyone was staring at her heavily bandaged back, but nobody was giving the group any attention as they arrived in front of Sheldon’s shop.

“Quick, while nobody’s looking.” Four shifted and slipped down into the grate with a sploosh.

“L-let’s go.” Eight whispered in Three’s ear. She only grunted painfully in reply. They shifted into their cephalopod forms together and sunk into the grate below.

Darkness enveloped them, and Eight felt that, now less surprising, diffusion of her octopus form, and the strong pull as the kettle tucked away under the grate whisked her and Three away, towards Tentakeel Outpost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's up, squiddos? I'm back again, and this time with ~Extra Pain~ 
> 
> Hope you're all doing good! I myself am currently in a state of torment, as I decided to stay up all night to finish writing this (A mistake, I promise I won't do it again... maybe. I have been up for nearly 20 hours).
> 
> I'm overall not as happy with this one as I wanted to be, but hopefully you still enjoyed it!
> 
> With that said, please comment and let me know what you think (and if you spot mistakes, which I will correct after I get a nap)! 
> 
> Bye for now and thanks for reading!


	9. Instinct, Popcorn and Blood

Eight blinked rapidly and tried to look around, but only saw grated metal in front of her eyes. She had somehow ended up face first on the ground after coming through the kettle, again. Her head pulsed in pain, but she was unsure if it was because of her falling over.

_ Ugh. My head hurts. _ She thought, and tried to stand up, but couldn’t. _ Why can’t I move? _

A heavy weight was holding her legs down. 

“Shell, seems like Three fainted.” Four’s worried voice came from above her. “I’ll help, uh, move her.”

Eight stood up awkwardly and helped Four lift Three, who was heavy enough for it to be a bit of a struggle to move her. 

Four looked around as they carried Three to the little cabin. “Cap! Where are yah?” She shouted.

A familiar, raspy old voice rang out from inside the cabin. “In here, Agent Four. Bring her in.” Craig said, and one of the sliding doors opened slightly.

Shoving open the door the rest of the way with her shoulder, Four led Three down towards a small bed in the cabin. 

Once Three was resting on the tiny bed, Eight looked around inside the tiny cabin. It was only wide enough to fit the small bed and a box with a chair in front of it, where Craig was sitting. Multiple shallow shelves and hooks lined the walls, stuffed to the brim with dusty boxes, weapons and clothing. Eight noticed a few dull old silver and gold medals strung in the upper left corner. 

Her attention was brought back to Three as Craig leant over her, lifted Eight’s blood soaked shirt off of her bleeding face and inspected her. “How did this happen?” His voice was sullen, a far cry to his usual upbeat nature. “Were you fighting some punks?”

Four was silent for a moment. “T-technically yes.” She looked away. “We played Turf War.” 

Craig just looked confused. “That doesn't explain why she’s hurt. Callie told me you don’t get hurt in Turf War.” He said, his bulbous eyes narrowing as he stared at Four. “Why is she hurt, Agent Four?” 

As Craig started to wipe away blood on Three’s face with an alcohol strip he had procured from a small medical bag at his feet; Four started talking rapidly, almost inanely. 

“I convinced them to play Turf War with me. I thought it was going fine for like, the first minute, but then I got splatted and noticed that Eight was still at the spawn pad, so I took her to the front and got splatted again.” She said, her volume lowering more and more as she spoke. “When I got back, she was acting strange, ignored me, ran off, and started splatting a third of the enemy team with... incredible skill.” 

Four turned back and looked directly at Eight, her eyes starting to tear up. “I’m so sorry, Eight. You were absolutely terrified, it’s my fault.” 

Eight’s head ached, as she suddenly became aware of a buzzing drone that penetrated her mind. She could say nothing.

_ Did I hit my head? No, that’s… That’s not it. _

The bits and pieces of the events of the Turf War match crept back into her thoughts. She had been blocking them out the entire time. 

_ Ah. I almost... hurt Four. I need to go before I do it again. _

“It’s m-my fault that I cc-couldn’t control my-myself.” Eight said, her voice breaking up uncontrollably; and she whipped around on the spot, taking a step away from the cabin. 

A hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. It was Craig’s. His seemingly frail old hands gripped with a force she didn’t expect.

“What happened, Agent Eight?” He asked her, his tone serious now. “What could you not control? Yourself is not an answer.”

Eight froze, unsure of herself. Her headache grew even more painful and her her tentacles looked like 

_ What could I not control? What could I not control? _

“I-I… I couldn’t…” She paused, desperately trying to parse her own mind. “I don’t know. I… almost hurt Four, that is all I can… remember.”

Craig, still holding on to her, spoke again. “Stay put, Agent Eight, you’re in shock.” He suddenly released her, and she almost fell over, only now realizing how hard she had been pulling away.

_ I should leave, but… I cannot disappoint him. _

She sat down on the wooden step and slumped over, closing her eyes. Craig and Four’s voices slowly became inaudible, Eight only catching a word or two every so often about Three and herself as her mind filled up more and more with a pulsing, buzzing headache.

She sat in silence for what felt like an eternity, barely aware of what was going on around her.

* * *

A full hour had passed, when suddenly and without warning, she felt a hand poke the top of her head. She jumped up like a spooked pigeon and immediately fell over again.

“Hey, you almost hit me.” A familiar, high pitched voice said. Eight looked up and opened her eyes. Standing over her was Callie, who was wearing a big pink sweatshirt and had her long black and pink tentacles tied behind her head.

“Sorry, I should have talked louder” She said, and shook a paper bag in front of Eight’s face. “Want a cookie?” She asked, and picked one out of the bag. 

Eight’s head still hurt, but she tried to shake it off, and then leaned forward slightly and took it.

“It's choco-chip.” Called said, taking one out of the bag and munching on it. 

_ Choco-chip cookie…? _

“Eat it, it’ll make you feel better.” Callie pushed Eight’s hand towards her mouth, and then sat down beside her on the wooden step. 

The cookie almost missed Eight’s mouth as she tried to take a bite. Her hands were shaking wildly and she hadn’t noticed.

_ It’s sweet… and crunchy. _

“Good, huh?” Callie asked, and scooted closer to Eight as someone else walked up to the step and peered into the cabin. It was Four. 

“Are you okay, Three?” She asked.

Eight turned her head around to look at the small bed where Three lay. She had poultice over most of her face, and her undamaged left eye was closed lightly. Craig was nowhere to be found.

  
Three moved slightly at Four’s voice, and opened her eye a crack. 

“I’m fine. Stop worrying about me.” She growled, and closed her eye again. 

Four grumbled and walked over to the blue couch that was nearby, and dragged it closer to the cabin; so that it was facing the doorway. 

“You two, come sit here instead.” She gestured at Eight and Callie. 

Callie got up with a hop and went to sit beside Four, in the middle of the couch. 

“Come sit here, Eight.” Four said again. 

Eight got up shakily, half of the cookie still in her hand, and stumbled over to the couch to sit down next to Callie. For some reason, her headache and the associated buzzing started to clear up quickly.

_ Is it this… choco-chip cookie thing? _

The Squid Sister stretched her arms up and rested them on the top of the couch. 

“So…” She said, tilting her head towards Eight. “Tell me what happened, bud.”

Immediately, Eight froze, and she felt a pang of pain as her headache returned in a rush.

“Finish the cookie, you’ll feel better.” Callie said, grabbing another out of the bag and munching on it. “I already know what happened for the most part, I just want to know your experience.” She said, her mouth full of cookie.

_ What do I say? I can only remember… flashes. _

“I… got s-shot in the shoulder…” Eight paused for almost half a minute before continuing. “E-everything came- everything rushed back to my head.” Her tentacles quivered slightly and curled as she spoke. “All my memories of… down there.” 

Callie suddenly reached over and grabbed her hand. Her palm was, surprisingly, quite rough, despite being a pop-star.

_ Oh, she’s also Agent 1. Right. That must be why. _

“Four said you entered some kind of, like, trance I guess, and proceeded to beat the shell out of the enemy team.” 

Eight’s deep purple eyes clouded slightly as she remembered the sheer terror she had felt while… while something else took the wheel. 

“I-I don’t kn-know if I did that.” She said, and shakily took another bite of the cookie. 

Four spoke up. “But you did, I saw you- Oh, wait a minute…” Her forehead creased as she thought. “You mean, like, instinct guided you?” 

“I-instinct?” Eight asked, finishing off the cookie and barely noticing when another was put in her hand by Callie. 

“Instinct is when, uh, you do something automatically in response to something scary or dangerous.” Callie said.

Eight nodded slightly. “Y-yes, that. I didn’t know the Inkling word.” She said, and suddenly a creeping chill went up her spine, causing her to shiver uncontrollably. 

_ I feel like I’m being… watched. No, I’m still not wearing a shirt, must be the cold. _

“Are you cold?” Callie asked, and pointed at the inside of the cabin, where Three was resting. “Go grab one of the spare agent jackets.” 

Putting the cookie down on the seat, Eight walked into the small space inside of the tiny cabin and moved towards the neon yellow jackets hanging above Three’s head. Eight glanced down at her as she reached across the small bed. Three’s visible eye was closed, and her long scarred tentacles were slipping off the side of the bed. 

_ Is she asleep? _

Eight grabbed one of the jackets and unzipped it, sliding one arm into a sleeve. She felt someone’s gaze on her as she grasped for the other sleeve, and looked down again. 

Three’s dark blue eye was staring up at her, with a look Eight didn’t quite understand. Their eyes locked for a split second, but Three quickly shut her eye again, as if embarrassed. 

Not knowing what to say or think, Eight quickly put on the other sleeve and zipped the jacket back up; then sat back down on the couch, grabbing her cookie as she did so. 

_ This jacket is comfy. The inside is all soft. _

Callie handed a cookie to Four and turned to Eight again. “Lookin’ fresh! That’s the jacket type that Four uses!” She said. “Okay, so... Can you… give some examples of memories?”

Eight’s hand strayed towards and started picking at a tear in the couch armrest as she thought. Her mind blanked for a couple of minutes, unsure of what to say.

“I can’t r-remember.” She said. “But it was scary. And I-I… Something else-, instinct, I mean, took over.”

Four leaned over, her yellow ponytail almost swatting Callie in the face. “When I looked at you… You, like, didn’t seem like you were there. Eyes were all cloudy and stuff.”

“Everything kinda went… dark… I guess.” Eight said, and her voice became a little more confident. “After that, I only remember flashes. Until I almost... hurt you.” She faltered.

Four shrugged it off. “You only dragged me to the ground, I’m fine. Me slapping you to… wake you up, I guess, probably hurt you more than you hurt me. Sorry about that, by the way.” She reached into the bag of cookies and grabbed another. “Let’s talk about this another time, okay? You didn’t do anything wrong, this is my fault.” 

She stood up and stretched. “When is Cap getting back with Marie?” She asked Callie, who shrugged and swallowed the rest of a cookie.

“They should be back soon but I don’t know. Gramps said something about ‘needing to grab some supplies’.” Callie replied, and stood up as well. “Also, I’m leaving when they get back.”

“Hey, Three.” She walked up to the injured Inkling. “That nog of yours feeling any better?” 

Three grumbled in response and turned over to face them. “I should go back to Sheldon’s.” She flipped her legs off the tiny bed, and sat up. “I’m feeling fine.”

She stood up and immediately fell face forwards into Callie, who caught her just in time. “Shell, Three, don’t lie to me.” Callie grunted, and righted Three. “You should stay here.” 

Three didn’t listen and started stumbling towards the grate. “I’m _ fine _.” She growled. 

“If you’re really intent on going, I’m coming along.” Callie said. They almost made it to the grate, when two inky forms popped out in front of them. 

“We’re back with blan-” Marie cut herself off as she shifted back into Inkling form. “Where are you two going?” She asked, her eyes narrowed.

“I’m going home.” Three said, and stepped forward again, movement shaky.

Craig walked over to Three with his cane in hand and waved it at her. “Turn around, Agent Three.” 

Three faltered for a second, but continued anyway, and immediately fell over sideways with a loud _ thunk _. 

“You’re an idiot, you know that right?” Marie grabbed Three’s arm and dragged her back up on her feet. “Get back over there or I’ll throw you off the Outpost.” 

Three reluctantly obliged and let Marie drag her over to the cabin. “This is unnecessary.” She groaned. 

“Shut it.” Marie said, and went back to help Craig pick up the bags she had left by the grate. “We’re all staying here for now.” She glared at Callie with dagger-eyes, who was trying to step on the grate without being noticed. “Including _ you _.”

Callie froze and frowned, letting out a huff and marching back over to the couch where Eight was sitting and flumping down.

Craig and Marie plopped the bags down in front of the couch and started digging through, bringing out blankets, pillows, foldable lawn chairs and frozen food. 

“Callie, where’s that portable barbeque?” Marie asked tersely. 

Callie, obviously eager to get away for a moment, jumped up and walked around the back of the cabin.

Marie turned to Three, who was sitting on the edge of the tiny bed with an incredibly grumpy look on the visible part of her face.

“If you keep that look up, you’re gonna make the poultice fall off.” She teased, and unfolded a few of the chairs. “Come sit, and cheer up.” 

Three shuffled over and sat in one of the chairs, next to Craig. As she sat down, Callie came back around the corner carrying the portable barbeque she had bought. Refusing to look Marie in the eyes, Callie set down the barbeque and plugged the cord into an outlet behind the cabin.

“Everyone could use a bit of a break.” Marie said, kicking open a low plastic table. “Gramps and I bought some burgers and stuff.” 

_ Burgers? I think I remember Pearl talking about those. _Eight thought, and leaned forward in her seat to look at the shiny steel barbeque.

Marie twisted some knobs on the front of it, and they all waited in silence as it heated up. After a couple of minutes, she took some burgers out of their box and placed a few on the barbeque, closing the lid with a thud.

“Hey, Four.” Marie pointed at one of the bags. “Grab some of those plastic cups. I bought your favourite juice.”

Four’s eyes lit up. “Grape?! Aw yeah!” She rummaged around in the bag until she found a bundle of plastic cups and a jug of grape juice. 

“Who wants some?” Four asked the group, while pouring juice into her own cup. Everyone except for Three raised their hand. 

“I’m giving you some anyway, Three.” Four said, and handed everyone a cup.

Eight took hers tenderly and inspected it. The cup had little stylized squid icons on it. She took a sip. It was sweet… almost too sweet.

_ This juice smells and tastes strange. _

Eight’s mind drifted off as she drank more of the grape juice, and she listened absentmindedly as Four, Craig and Marie had conversations about music, agent work and lots of things Eight didn’t understand.

* * *

After around thirty minutes or so, during which neither Callie nor Three spoke at all, Marie tapped her on the shoulder and placed a paper plate on her lap. 

“Burger’s done.” Marie said. “I put ketchup and cheese on it, hope that’s okay.” 

Eight nodded in thanks, and lifted it up off the plate to take a bite.

_ Too hot! _

She let out a yelp and the burger fell out of her hands and onto the ground. 

“I’m sorry!” She cried, and looked around at others, her tentacles curling up in embarrassment.

Marie laughed and patted her on the shoulder. “It’s alright, I’ll make you another one.” She said, and picked up the dropped burger and dumped it into a small trash can by the cabin.

“Take mine.” Callie said, shoving her plate, with her untouched burger, at Eight, and standing up. “I’ve really gotta go, sorry guys.”

She started fast-walking towards the grate, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Marie went after her like lightning.

“GET BACK HERE!” Marie shouted, making everyone jump out of their seats, most of all Eight. None of the Agents had ever heard her get so angry, so quickly. 

“You. Are not. Leaving. Until. We’ve had. A _ talk _.” Marie looked like she was about to let out fumes, her face was an angry blue and her golden eyes lit up in flame.

Callie stopped for a moment as she stepped on the grate, turned to glance at Marie with a hurt look, and shifted into her squid form, sinking down and disappearing. 

Just before she shifted, Eight swore she saw Callie glance at a corner of the Outpost, where D.J. Octavio’s globe stood. When she turned to look, she found herself staring directly into Octavio’s piercing, neon green eyes. 

_ How long has he been staring at me? _

His eyes narrowed, scrutinizing her. After a few seconds of gazing intensely, eyes locked with hers, he blinked and turned around.

Perturbed, Eight turned back around on the couch and trembled as Marie stomped back over and slammed back down into her chair. 

_ Scary… I must never accidentally make her mad. _

There was an awkward silence for a few moments, until Craig spoke. 

“I don’t know what is going on between you girls, but you need to fix it.” He said, frowning.

Marie, more visibly calm at this point, collected herself back into her normal, confident state and let out a long sigh. 

“I’m sorry for the outburst. There’s just… a lot she’s not telling me.” She said, her eyes flicking towards Eight for a split moment. “It’s frustrating, and she won’t stop lying and running away.” She lowered her voice and tilted her head towards Octavio’s globe. “Pretty sure it’s that jerk’s fault.”

_ Is this about me? _

“Should you go after her? Do you want me to?” Four asked, casting a worried glance at the grate.

Marie shook her head. “Neither of us will find her at this point. She’s fast. I’ll wait for her to come back.” She smiled sorrowfully at Four. “One way or another, she always does.”

Craig cleared his throat with a raspy noise. “Well, we can’t dwell on that now! Let’s enjoy the rest of the evening, we brought blankets and pan popcorn.” He said, trying to liven the mood. 

Four jumped up, her face changing from somber to ecstatic in less than a second. “Popcorn?! Heck yeah!” She went through the bags at lightning speed and dug up a bunch of foil covered plate things with metal handles. 

_ Popcorn? Pearl likes corn, is popcorn just a different type of corn? _

Marie turned some dials around on the barbeque and placed three of them on the burner. 

“These’ll take a bit.” She said, leaning back into her chair. 

Eight picked up the burger that Callie had given her and started eating it. It was cool enough now to not burn her. 

_ This is really good. Surface food is amazing. _

She shivered again as a breeze passed over the Outpost, despite the agent jacket. She looked at the blankets lying in a stack on the ground longingly, but didn’t move.

_ It’s so cold up here… I wonder how far up in the sky we actually are? _

As if her thoughts were heard, Four got up and grabbed the blankets. “It’s freezing up here.“ She said. “Wish that we weren’t so high, but I guess we can’t be picky.” 

Four started to drape a blanket over top of herself and Eight, but stopped for a moment and looked at Three. 

“Come sit on the couch, you look dead tired.” 

Three’s eye cracked open, and she let out a grumble. “Sure… I guess. This chair is awful.” She murmured, and slowly stood up from her folding chair. She took a step towards the couch and wobbled. Not even half a second later, there was a loud thud as Three fell face forwards directly onto the couch, and on top of Eight. 

There was an awkward silence for half a second, followed by a frantic scramble as a now very much wide awake Three tried and failed to right herself. 

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” She half-whispered, failing again to get herself off of Eight’s lap. The weird smell of the poultice filled Eight’s nose. 

_ Eugh, that really stinks. _

She helped Three pick herself up.

“Sorry.” Three repeated again, her face a bright shade of blue. 

Four, who seemed to be stifling giggles, calmed herself and flung the edge of the blanket over to Three, who missed it and let it fall to the ground. “You uh, are acting a little… drunkish, Three.” She said, her voice picking up a worried tone. “You gonna stop insisting that you’re fine any time soon?”

Three froze in thought for a moment, and sighed. 

“I’m… Oh, fine.” She brought a hand up to her face, but lowered it quickly. “I feel… dizzy. Woozy. Got a big ol’ headache.” She grimaced and pointed at the poultice on her face. “My face feels incredibly gross under all this.” 

Craig got up out of his chair and shuffled over to the cabin. “Oh! Now that you mention it, we should change that poultice.”

He picked up the small medical bag by the bed and walked back over to Three. “Sit on the ground for a moment, Agent Three.” 

Once she had slid down to the floor, Craig started slowly taking off the cloth on Three’s face. 

Eight looked away instinctively, but her eyes crept back over. The cuts all over Three’s face had started to scab over, with some exceptions, and she had some sort of clear goopy slime all over where the teal ink stain on her face was. Her dead eye seemed to be covered as well.

_ Is that goop the poultice? Is it medicine? _

“Wh-” Marie got up and inspected Three’s face. “What is all this goop?”

Craig grabbed a little paper towel out of the bag and started removing the goop. “I’m not sure… There was some on her face before, but it’s accumulating.” He murmured, and once all of the goop around the eye was gone he started rolling out and cutting more cloth; applying medicine to it as he did. 

Three’s face was quickly covered back up in poultice and she climbed back up on the couch beside Eight.

“Th-thanks.” She said, patting the cloth gingerly. “I really don’t-” 

_ POP! _

Eight flinched and looked around in confusion like a spooked bird. 

_ POP! POP! POP! _

Her tentacles almost stood on end as she flinched repeatedly from each pop. Four let out a loud guffaw.

“Hahahaha, you’ve never had popcorn before?!” She pointed at the barbeque, where the little foil covered plates were. The foil was puffed up into a massive ball now, like some sort of mushroom, and looked like it was about to explode. “Popcorn is, well, called that because it makes a popping sound!” 

_ Oh. That’s frightening. _

“I-I see.” Eight said, pulling the blanket up to her face. “I don’t like it.”

“It’s tasty, trust me.” Four chuckled.

After around thirty more seconds of loud popping, Marie turned off the barbeque, moved the pan popcorn to the foldable table to cool. After about a minute, she grabbed each of them, handing one to Four, one to Eight, and keeping the last for herself and Craig. 

“You three get an extra.” She said, and grabbed the top of the foil bubble, tearing it open neatly to make a bowl shape.

Four and Eight did the same, albeit carefully since the foil was still hot. Eight’s eyes widened when she saw the puffy yellow and white popcorn inside.

_ Whoah! This smells so good. They look like… little clouds. _

“Nithe.” Four had immediately started shoveling handfuls into her mouth. “Lomve budderd papcorn.” She spewed, talking with her mouth full. 

“You’re so gross.” Marie said, as she and Craig neatly shared theirs. 

Eight gingerly picked one up and ate it. It was light and soft, and tasted very buttery and salty. She grabbed more and shoved them into her mouth.

“Nevermind, I like them.” She said, and offered the foil bowl to Three. 

Three shook her head. “I don’t think I can eat anything right now.” She said. Eight glanced at the table. Sure enough, Three’s burger and grape juice from earlier were sitting there untouched.

“Why not?” Eight asked. 

Three just shook her head, her long tentacles swaying about. “I just… feel weird.”

Four, who had just finished swallowing another entire handful of popcorn, opened her mouth to speak. “What kind of weird? Also, you still haven’t told us why you ended how you did during that match.” She asked, and went back munching.

Three grimaced slightly. “I… I think…” She trailed off, and thought for a minute. “I was shooting my Splattershot, and everything was fine for a bit. I kinda felt something, though, as I shot.” She pointed at the stained side of her face, and then to her chest. “It was around here, and here. I ignored it at first, it wasn’t painful or anything, so just kept inking turf.” 

Everyone stared at her in anticipation.

“Uh… after a bit longer it started to burn. It does that a lot though, so I ignored it again. After a couple more seconds of shooting, though, my whole body burst into pain and like, my Splattershot stopped working.”

“It stopped working?” Four asked, tilting her head in confusion. 

Three nodded her head. “Yes, but I kept trying to shoot. No ink was coming out, despite my tank being completely full. I felt really drained.” 

“What made you bleed? Did you fall?” Marie asked, her eyes narrowed as she looked at Three worriedly.

“I didn’t fall, it just got to the point where I was in so much pain that I kneeled down and blacked out.” Her hand inched towards her face again, but this time she didn’t pull it away.

“When I came to, like a second later, I was facing the ground and my skin felt like it was on fire, so I touched my face. When I pulled back my hands, they were covered in blood.” 

“I-I…” Her voice faltered. “I think my wounds reopened somehow, and it wasn’t because of falling.” 

Craig gazed sternly at Three. “Are ya gonna tell us how you got those cuts in the first place, missy?” 

Three was silent for a while, her hand digging into the cloth on her face slightly.

“I’d rather not.” She said, an edge to her voice. 

Craig got out of his seat and walked directly up to her face. “You must, right now. It’s important.”

“No.” She responded tersely. 

Craig’s large, bushy eyebrows furrowed. “You _ will _, Agent Three. This is an order.”

“Three didn’t respond.

Craig sighed and turned around. “If you won’t cooperate, I’ll have to take you off of agent commission, Three.” 

“_GAH HAH HAH HAH HAH _!” Three started laughing in a scary, mocking tone. “Yeah! Yeah, right, like I can do that ever again anyway.” Her laughter shifted and morphed into growls of anger. “I’m never doing anything again! I can’t see out of one eye, I can’t change my ink colour, and I can’t even shoot a weapon without collapsing!” 

Her normally stoic nature was gone. She started gripping her face with such strength that her claws tore past the cloth and sunk into her skin, drawing cobalt blue blood, but she didn’t seem to notice.

Four reached towards her. “Three-” She began, but was cut short.

“AUGH!” Three shouted in rage. “My face burns all the damn time! Do you know what it’s like to wake up every morning with cuts all over your face?” 

Eight shrunk backwards into Four in fright as Three lurched upwards off the couch. All of them stared in shocked silence as Three continued.

“How do you think it feels like to look into the mirror every morning and see _ this _?!” She cried, ripping the fresh poultice off of her face with both hands. Her white, deadened eye glistened as tears of anguish started to stream down her cheeks, mixing with the blood seeping out of where her claws had punctured. 

She stood there for what felt like an age, head in her hands, shaking slightly.

“If I’m not an agent, I’m nothing.” Three stated quietly, as if it were the truest fact in the world. “I’m going home.”

Before anyone could say a word, she began to sprint towards the grate, and with a resounding thud, she stumbled and fell face first onto the ground.

Four and Marie rushed to help her, but she pushed herself up onto her knees and kneeled over, holding her now even more bruised head in her hands.

Three let out a pitiful sob. “C-can’t even walk.”

Eight got off the couch and strode over to stand in front of Three.

_ I need to do something. _

Eight kneeled in front of Three and turned sideways. Lifting up the agent jacket she was wearing above her midriff, she loosened her bandages with her free hand. 

“I know…” She faltered, but regained her confidence and tried again. “I kn-know the pain you’re feeling.” She murmured, facing her back towards Three to show her her teal stained and scarred back. 

Three stayed motionless, her dark blue left eye unfocused as she peeked through the gaps in her hands at Eight’s disfigured back. 

“Take me back to the bed.” She said eventually, as if Eight had said nothing to her. “I’ll need another poultice.”

Craig, who had appeared behind them silently, already had the medical bag, and started cleaning and applying new cloth to her face without saying a word. 

He finished quickly, and motioned to Four and Marie to help Three to the bed. They lifted her up gently and helped her walk.

Eight followed them along quietly, wrapping herself back up and pulling down the neon yellow agent jacket again.

_ Did I do the wrong thing? _

Three climbed into the tiny bed and curled up, as Marie placed a few of the extra blankets on top of her. “Close the door.” She grunted 

Marie grabbed the sliding door and shut it softly. She gestured towards the rock archway behind the cabin, indicating to follow.

Once they were all out of earshot, Marie whispered at them. 

“I knew she was taking losing an eye hard, but… not like this.” 

Four shook her head in dismay. “I don’t know her super well yet, but even I could tell that at least. Also, what’s up with her Splattershot not working? I’ve never heard of that before.”

Craig stroked his long white beard in thought. “She mentioned that her ink tank was full. The only way that she could have shot for that long without emptying it at all is if…” His eyes widened. “If it was using her internal ink sac.” 

Marie frowned in confusion. “But that’s impossible, Turf War grade weapons are linked to the ink tank.” She said. 

“Actually, I’m pretty sure they can use the user’s ink sac under the right circumstances.” Four said. “Like if…” Her jaw dropped in shock. “Like if the user’s ink colour doesn’t match the ink tank’s coded one!”

She smacked her forehead. “Dammit. This is all my fault. I should have remembered that when she said she couldn’t change colours.”

Marie grabbed her shoulder. “No, it’s not your fault. Her condition is entirely unusual. ”She let out a heavy sigh. “Listen, it’s getting late. Let’s just take Eight home and worry about this tomorrow.” 

_ I don’t feel good about leaving Three here alone. _Eight fidgeted with the zipper of the agent jacket nervously.

“I’m going to just sleep on the couch with some of the extra blankets.” Four said, as if in response to Eight's thought, and tilted her head behind her, in the direction of the cabin. “She’s where I usually sleep.”

Marie turned to Eight. “I’ll take you home. Grab that your popcorn if you want, and follow me.” She said. Eight didn’t touch the popcorn, and just followed Marie to the grate, taking one last look behind her at the cabin.

_ So much happened today. I hope she feels better tomorrow. _

She shifted into octopus form and descended into the grate after Marie. The world went dark once again, and she was whisked off to the Square.

* * *

Four and Craig barely spoke to each other as they cleaned up the barbeque, packed up the foldable furniture, dumped the uneaten food and stored the rest of the frozen food in a small freezer. 

“I have somewhere I need to hang tonight.” Craig croaked. “Keep an eye on her.” 

Three nodded. ‘I’m going to sleep early tonight.” She whispered. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Cap.”

She moved the couch up against the cabin, silently waving goodbye as Craig dropped into the grate. 

After some fumbling about, she gathered all of the blankets and tucked herself into the couch. She closed her eyes, thinking about Eight and Three’s pain, and how much more she’d inadvertently caused today.

_ I’ll never let anyone get hurt because of my stupid decisions again. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's up, cephalopals? 
> 
> Hope ya'll liked this chapter! It's another longer one. I thought I would have had it done a few days ago, but due to some distraction issues and the fact that it Just. Kept. Getting. Longer, it's done now instead.
> 
> I'm getting to the point where I'm considering going back and re-writing portions of previous chapters for better flow, legibility and consistency. Should I? Or should I ignore it for now?
> 
> Let me know what you think about that, and the chapter, in the comments. I'd really appreciate it!
> 
> Thanks for reading!! Remember to subscribe to the fic if you've got an account for email updates! Bye for now~


	10. Even More Bad Dreams and A Shopping Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya! I haven't used a beginning note in ages. I decided to use this chapter to take a reflection upon my writing (this is my first fic, after all, I always have more to learn) and do some changes and improvements to my style. I'm not sure how different/better it'll be to read, as I didn't get anyone else to proofread before posting, so please tell me what you think! I asked last chapter if I should go back and rewrite some chapters, and I'm fairly certain I will, but I want to continue with/improve this style before doing that so I can make everything consistent.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Golden sunlight crept through Four’s eyelids as she awoke from slumber._ What time is it? _

She blindly rolled over to reach for her phone, and fell down to the ground with a loud thunk.

“Ouch.” She muttered, and picked herself up while looking around, her eyes wide open now.

_ Right. I was sleeping on the couch. Now where’s my phone? _ Four patted her pockets and reached in, bringing out her bright yellow phone and opened it to check the time. Ten-thirty. Not normally a time she was used to waking up at. _ How did I wake up this late? I went to sleep so early… _

Four’s ears twitched as she heard a faint rustling noise from behind her. She turned around towards the small cabin where Three was resting and listened closely. _ Is she awake too? Should I check on her? _

She crept closer to the wooden sliding door and quietly pried it open, just enough to look around inside. It was nearly pitch black, and the single dinky old lightbulb inside had been turned off. The shaft of light flowing in from above her head only illuminated the left corner of the cramped space. 

“Three?” Four said, somewhat quietly. Three didn’t respond, but she sensed some slight movement coming from the bed. _ She’s awake, at least. _

“I’m going to, uh, go get you some food.” Four slid the door shut and stretched. _ I should probably go check on Eight and see if she wants to come. _She pulled out her phone again and quickly sent Eight a text, before starting to gather up all of the blankets on the couch she’d been sleeping on and storing them away.

Soon after, she walked over to the grate, tying her longer back tentacles into a ponytail as she went. Darkness enveloped her as she shifted into squid form, sinking into the grate and disappearing.

  
  


* * *

Eight’s eyes flew open. Everything around her was nearly pitch black. She reached around on the bed to feel for her friends. They weren’t there, and the sheets were cold. _ Pearl? Marina? Where are they? _

She slid off of the bed slowly, and stood up. A glint of light caught the corner of her eye. _ The door is open. Are they up early? _

She crept towards the open doorway and peered into the hallway. A small, white light flickered in the middle, floating silently a couple of feet off the ground. _ Is that what Marina said a candle is? _

Eight took a step towards the light, and, as if it were alive, it moved away. Instinctively, she sped up to follow it. It led her through the apartment and towards the front door. 

“Where are you taking me?” She asked, as if it would respond. It simply floated through the solid door and disappeared. _ Should I follow it? I shouldn’t leave the house this early… but… I don’t know where Marina and Pearl are. _

Without even putting on socks or shoes, Eight opened the door and stepped outside. She looked around for the little light, but it was nowhere to be seen. The street lamps glowed an eerie light overhead. _ Where did it go? _

For a moment, she hung, and with a jolt, she suddenly realized that her feet had nowhere to stand. Her stomach plummeted as she fell into a gaping hole beneath her feet, deep, deep down into the dark abyss. After what felt like an eternity, she met solid ground again with a thud, although she felt no pain.

She closed her eyes in fright, but somehow she could still see, although her surroundings were even darker than the bedroom had been. _ Where am I? This must be a dream… _

As if in response to her thought, the little white light reappeared. It illuminated a small patch of concrete ground around it, and Eight immediately sprung to her feet in terror and ran in the opposite direction.

_ Not here! No, no, no! _

She ran and ran through room after room of all-encompassing darkness, her hearts beating in terror, and eventually chanced a glance over her shoulder. 

The little light was steadily chasing her, not losing pace as it floated through the air. Eight stumbled and fell as she tried to turn her head back around, rolling behind a corner as she tumbled. 

She quickly scrambled to her feet and hid behind the wall, but it was too late. Something knocked her clean over with incredible force, and she found herself staring straight into the little white light, now inches away from her face. 

The little light shifted and morphed, and Eight screamed as her entire body erupted in a fiery pain before she could see what it became.

* * *

_ “Eight! Eight!” _

She shot up and immediately fell backwards as her head hit hard with something above her.

“Ouch!” 

Eight’s eyes shot open, and she shook her head to clear the dizziness from hitting her head. Sunlight poured into her vision, and realized that she was back in bed, with Pearl sitting in front of her on her knees, holding onto her head in pain. 

“You conked me pretty good there, Eight.” Pearl groaned. She let go of her head and put her hands on Eight’s arms, and started speaking in Octarian. **“You uh, were tossing and turning like mad, and yelling and stuff. Were you having another nightmare?”**

Eight blinked a few times before responding. The blankets were almost halfway off the bed from being tossed around. **“Y-y-yeah.”** _It felt… it felt so real._

**“Pearlie, let’s get her some breakfast.”** Marina said. Eight looked to her side, and saw her standing beside the doorway. She was giving Eight a worried look, but smiled and waved when she noticed the red tentacled octoling looking at her.

**“Coming right up!”** Pearl said, and half-rolled off the bed, bouncing up and heading towards the kitchen. 

Marina stepped backwards, hand on the doorknob. **“I’ll let you get dressed. Get up soon, you’ll feel better.”** She said, and walked out of the door into the hallway, shutting the door with a soft click. 

Eight didn’t move for a minute or two, her mind still racing from the events of the dream. _ That light… it felt so familiar, somewhat comforting--and yet, why did it hurt me? Why did it bring me there? _

She shook her head and slid out of bed for what felt like the second time this morning, slipping out of her pajamas and into a set of clothes that were already set up on the edge of the bed for her.

As she entered the living room, Eight heard a knock on the front door. 

“I’ll get it!” Pearl yelled from the kitchen, where she was helping Marina make food. Not even a second later, Eight had to step backwards as Pearl zipped out of the kitchen and grabbed the front door. 

“Oh, hello, it’s you again.” Pearl said, having opened the door just enough to stick her head out. Eight couldn’t catch whoever was talking on the other side. “Yeah, come on in, we’ve not had breakfast yet.”

Eight instinctively backed out of the hallway and sat down at the dining table as the door opened all the way. A few seconds later, Pearl rounded the corner back into the living room with Four in tow. 

“Hey Eight! Did you not get my text?” Four said, giving her a wave from the doorway. She was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. “I was wondering if you, uh, wanted to go get Three some food and then go hang out.” 

_ Oh, I didn’t check my phone. _“Y-yeah. Sure.” Eight said, fiddling with the tablecloth.

Marina peaked her head around the corner of the kitchen area. “Hello there! Why don’t you two stay for breakfast and I can make something for her?”

Four smiled nervously and sat down beside Eight. “That’d be really great, thanks.” She said, and leaned in towards Eight as Pearl walked back into the kitchen. She whispered into Eight’s ear. “I still can’t believe I’m in the same room as Off the Hook. What’s it like to live with them?” 

“It’s nice, I guess? We are good friends.” Eight responded, absentmindedly continuing to tug at the tablecloth. _ What a weird question. _

They sat in somewhat awkward silence for about a minute as Marina and Pearl continued to make food. It was broken every so often by Marina humming a soft tune, and the fridge opening and closing with a loud clunk. 

Suddenly, Pearl poked her head out around into the living room. “Hey, uh, Four, right? You like mayo?” 

“Yeah!” Four said enthusiastically. Eight tried to lean over to see into the kitchen but she could only see Pearl’s back. _ What are they making? _

Soon after, Pearl came out of the kitchen carrying sandwiches, with Marina in tow, who had an opaque plastic container, presumably containing food for Three.

“All ready!” Pearl said, hopping over to the table and laying out the sandwiches. 

“Thanks!” Four said, immediately picking up her sandwich and digging in voraciously. 

The whole sandwich was gone in less than 30 seconds. Suddenly realizing how fast she had eaten it, she glanced around the table in embarrassment.

_ Wow, she was hungry. _

Pearl let out a chuckle. “Still hungry?” She asked Four, who nodded sheepishly. “Take mine, I’ll make another.” She said, and slipped her yet untouched sandwich onto Four’s plate, getting up to walk back into the kitchen.

Eight looked down at her sandwich and inspected it. It had lettuce, and some sort of sliced meat and cheese. Fortunately, Pearl had not put mayonnaise on it. Eight didn’t like it very much.

She started eating as Pearl came back and sat down with another sandwich. Eight looked around at the pictures on the walls and her eyes passed over the analogue clock on the wall. The time read at a quarter past eleven, although it took Eight a few seconds to figure it out, as she’d only learned how to read it recently. _ Oh, I woke up that late? _Suddenly, Eight realized something. “Um, why are you two still here?” She asked, and pointed at the clock. 

Marina looked confused, but realization came quickly. “Oh, yeah. We’re going in to work late today.” She said, and momentarily put down her sandwich to pull out her phone. She opened it up, checked something and put it back down.

“We just finished a bunch of preparations for the upcoming Splatfest, so we’re taking a break before we go back at it.” She said, moving one of her dark, green tipped tentacles back behind her chair. 

Pearl, who had just finished her sandwich, leant forward and spoke excitedly. “It’s gonna be so great! We’ve done a lot of work, and the theme this time is really fun!” She grinned and turned to Four, who had opened her mouth to speak. “I can’t tell you what it is, yet.” 

Four flumped back with a huff, but regained her posture instantly. “I’m really excited! Splatfests have been really fun since you started doing them, not that the Squid Sisters’ were, like, worse, though.”

Pearl giggled. “Hehe, thanks. They’re a lot of fun, even if they take up so much of our time to set up.” She pondered for a moment. “Hey, speaking of the Squid Sisters, why did Marie bring you back last night, Eight? Isn’t she like, always super busy?”

_ Oh, I forgot to tell them what happened yesterday… _

Four gulped and looked apprehensive. “Ah. So. About that…” She hunched forwards slightly. “So we played Turf War yesterday and-”

Pearl practically jumped out of her seat. “YOU PLAYED TURF WAR?!?!” She grinned excitedly at Eight. “How did it go? Did you splat lots of people? Did you win?”

_ I… I… What do I say? _Eight turned her head towards Four with a pleading look, but she looked at a loss.

After a few seconds of confused tension, Marina spoke up. “Did… Did it not go very well?” She asked.

“Not… Not really.” Four said, and suddenly burst out in rapid speech about the events of the previous day. She talked about almost everything, including what happened to Three and Eight, and how Eight said she felt. She purposefully neglected to mention Callie running off, Marie’s anger, and what Three had said before going to sleep in the cabin. 

“-And it’s all my fault because I didn’t think about what would happen.” She finished, slightly out of breath.

Pearl and Marina, who had been listening with rapt attention, immediately rushed over to Eight and Four and began talking at the same time. 

“Why didn’t you tell us this last night Eight-”

“Are you okay?!”

“It’s not your fault-”

“So that’s why Three needs food?”

Eight drew back a bit, slightly overwhelmed, and her tentacles twitched slightly.

Marina, noticing that, leaned in to give Eight a tight hug. “Sorry, dear. Do you need anything? We’re not gonna be leaving for another hour.” She asked. 

Eight shook her head and hugged her back. “I’m okay!” She thought for a moment, unsure what words to use. “Just a bit…” She started, swapping to Octarian mid-sentence. **“Shaken, I suppose.”**

**“If there’s something wrong, you’d tell me, right?” **Marina asked, letting go of the hug. 

Of course she would, but there was nothing wrong. It was just a dream. _ Sure didn’t feel like it, though. _ **“Yes.” **Eight said, trying her best to maintain eye contact with Marina.

Four, not privy to the Octarian conversation, shoved the last of her second sandwich in her mouth and looked at them with a befuddled stare. Pearl turned to her and translated the gist of it. The group then ate the rest of their meal in silence, deep in their own respective thoughts.

* * *

A few minutes later, Eight and Four were slipping into their shoes and heading out towards the Square with the container of food. It didn’t take long for them to arrive, and they quickly jumped into the Tentakeel Outpost grate. 

The air was even colder than usual at the Outpost. The pair walked towards the little cabin and peered in. 

“Hey, are you awake? Brought you some food.” Four said, reaching her hand around to try to find the lightswitch, but failing. 

After a moment of no response, Three finally spoke. “Go. away.” She said aggressively, her voice hoarse.

“You need food.” Four found the lightswitch and flicked it on. The cramped room lit up a second later as the old lightbulb flickered to life, revealing the tiny bed and the ill inkling resting on it. Three looked somehow worse than the day before, although the cuts on her face had stopped bleeding. The bag under her visible eye looked more pronounced than normal, as if she hadn’t slept a wink.

“_Turn it off!” _She hissed. Four did so immediately, fumbling with the switch in her haste. “Now, go.” Three muttered. “I don’t need your food.”

“B-but-” Four began, but was immediately cut off. 

“I said _ go away. _” Three snarled. 

Four glanced at Eight desperately. She mouthed ‘what do we do?’ vaguely. Neither of them knew, and they stood there in silence for a few minutes, looking at each other and the cabin door.

“Are you gonna leave or do I need to _ make _ you?” There was a loud rustle as Three tried to move, but not even a second later she let out a grunt of pain and stopped.

Eight wanted to say something, anything, but after trying to help Three the previous night she felt unsure if anything she said would work. _ Maybe we should just leave the food here? _

She took the container from Four and slipped into the cramped cabin. 

“Get the shell out, Four.” Three tried to move again, and failed. 

Eight placed the container beside the bed quickly. _ Did she not see me when the light was on? _She backed out of the door hastily. 

“P-please eat.” She mumbled, just loud enough for Three to hear. 

The bedridden inkling let out a scoff. “You’re here too? _ Great _. Just great. Leave me alone! I barely know either of you!” Her voice was laced with malice.

Eight felt very hurt. _ Does she dislike me? I thought we were becoming friends… _

“I just want to help… you’re in a lot of pain and-and the stuff you said yesterday was-was concerning.” Eight said. 

Three growled. “Are you dull? Forget I said anything yesterday, I’m _ fine, _ I don’t need your help, and I most certainly don’t need _ Four’s _. She’s done nothing but make bad decisions and be annoying as all shell.”

A look of guilt crossed Four’s face, but it quickly vanished and was replaced with a scowl. Suddenly, she grabbed Eight’s arm, causing her to jump in surprise. “Let’s just go, if she wants to be difficult she can go _ right ahead. _ ” She said, eyes narrowing angrily. “Enjoy your precious alone time, _ Ex-Agent Three. _”

Eight was taken aback, and her tentacles curled up in stress. Why did they have to fight? This wasn’t good at all. _ I thought we were all getting along... _

“You- you _ bitch _ !” Three yelled furiously. There was a scrambled of noise and suddenly she was in front of them, grabbing for leverage at the door. “Say that again, I _ dare _ you.” Her one visible eye was blazing. Eight hadn’t heard the word ‘bitch’ before, but it didn’t sound very nice. 

Four, her normally cheerful demeanour gone, sneered at Three with contempt. “I don’t need to,_ you already said it yourself last night _.”

Letting out a cry of rage, Three lunged at her, but she didn’t go very far. With a crash, she planted face first into the ground, half of her body still on the wooden step of the cabin. 

Complete silence rose for what felt like forever, as Four and Eight started down at the motionless inkling on the ground in front of them. Three’s long scarred tentacles were splayed out, and Eight thought she heard quiet sobbing coming from her. _ Is she crying? _

After some hesitation, she leaned down and grabbed Three under the arms, lifting her up. She was still just as surprisingly heavy as last time. Fortunately, Three didn’t struggle or say anything. Once she was sitting upright on the step, Eight backed off. Three didn’t look at her, instead slowly getting up and dragging herself back into the cabin, sliding the door shut with a slam that rattled the whole building.

_ I wish I knew what she was thinking. Maybe I’d know what to do… _Eight turned to Four, but she wasn’t there, and was instead already shifting into squid form as she sank down into the grate. She rushed after her after some hesitation, not wanting to be left behind. 

* * *

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, as Four had decided to walk Eight home and go somewhere else alone to vent her frustration. Eight ended up sleeping early, before Marina and Pearl even returned home that night. Thankfully, the nightmare she had had didn’t return, and she slept peacefully for the most part.

The day after that went just the same, as Four didn’t show up or text her at all, and she was too nervous to ask if she wanted to hang out. Soon a day turned to two, then three, and then a week. 

_ Does she hate me too? Did I do something wrong? _ Eight pondered as she sat at the couch, watching some sort of sports show on the television. It was incredibly boring, and she couldn’t remember how to swap the channels. Despite only having spent time with Four and Three for a few days, and those days not going so well, she still liked them and being out there with them was more interesting than sitting around staring at a flashing light all day. _ I wish I could help Three… _

Suddenly loud knocking sounded from the front door, and Eight almost fell over in shock. After another listen, it sounded more like someone was banging at the door with their entire fist. She quickly scrambled up and nervously walked over to the door. 

“Hey!” A muffled voice shouted from the other side. “It’s me, Callie! Lemme in!”

Eight had no idea why Callie of the freaking _ Squid Sisters _ was here. How she even knew where she lived was beyond her. It was one thing to get walked home by Marie after what had happened last week, another to have one of her idols show up at her house with no warning. _ Maybe she asked Marie? Did they make up? Maybe the Captain told her to come here. _

Putting that aside for now, Eight opened the door quickly and let her in. She had to step back as Callie almost fell inside, apparently not expecting the door to open so fast. 

“Whoops! Hi there, Eight!” Callie stood back up straight and laughed. Her two long black and pink tentacles were tied into a ponytail, and she was wearing shades, a face-mask and her pink cardigan + beanie combo. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked for you to let me in, I want you to come with me.”  
  
Eight stared at her incredulously for a second. It was at this point that she realized she was only wearing pajamas. She felt her face flush and tentacles twitch, but Callie didn’t seem to notice. “I-I,” She looked over her shoulder. “Yeah, sure, just let me g-grab my phone and stuff.” She zipped back off into the apartment, running into the room she shared with Marina and Pearl to quickly get changed and grabbed her phone on the way back out. 

“Wow, you’re fast!” Callie exclaimed, already starting to jog off. ‘C’mon, let’s go!” 

Eight hurried to catch up with her, trying to text Marina as she did so to tell her that she was leaving the apartment. Callie kept on walking, in the direction of the Square. Were they going to see the Captain at the Outpost? He would normally have just texted her if he wanted to see her. 

“Um, where are we going?” Eight asked, finally catching up to Callie and jogging alongside her. 

Callie tilted her head. She suddenly looked a little grim. “We’re going to get groceries.” 

_ Why does she look upset about that? Are groceries bad? _

“Three needs some food and supplies.” Callie said, noticing her confusion, and made a sharp turn towards a bunch of buildings a block before the Square. _ Okay, so now I know what groceries are, but why am I needed to get them? _

As if to answer what she’d been thinking, Callie kept talking. “There’ll be too much for me to carry and uh, Four won’t answer my texts.” 

_ Four won’t answer texts? Weird. I guess she’s also still not talking to Marie if she won’t help either. _

Soon, they arrived at a small storefront and slowed down to walk up to the glass sliding doors. A big lit up sign above the store said ‘Mini-MakoMart’. Eight felt a spike of anxiety as Callie led the way inside. Eight hadn’t been inside any store but Sheldon’s so far, and it wasn't even to buy anything. As soon as she stepped inside, she looked around in amazement. The store was filled with shelves and glass fridges, all containing a colourful array of food and supplies. Everywhere she looked she spotted something interesting and new. 

Callie told her to stay put for a moment as she walked off, and she returned shortly with a small metal cart. They roamed around the store, Eight picking things off of shelves and out of fridges as Callie pointed at them. Around 10 minutes later, they had lined up at a cashier and Callie instructed her to load the groceries into plastic bags on the other end of a conveyor. She didn’t do a very good job stacking everything, but it all seemed to fit into six of the bags. 

Callie picked up four of them and left two for Eight. She was beaming as they walked out of the store, proud of herself for once. Turns out that picking up colourful objects and putting them in a cart was pretty fun. _ That wasn’t so bad. Talking to the cashier sounds like a terrible time, though. _

The pair strolled back along the way they came side by side. Eight glanced at Callie every so often, in awe that she could carry so much stuff at once. _ She must be really strong… _

“You were pretty efficient, just like I expected.” Callie said, nudging Eight lightly with her elbow. Eight blushed slightly. _ I can’t believe I just got complimented by one of the Squid Sisters… _

Callie continued talking; “By the way, thanks for not saying my name in there. I forgot to tell ya, but I’m wearing a mask and glasses for a reason.”

Eight just stared at her in confusion. _ Huh? _

Noticing the befuddled look on Eight’s face, Callie let out a guffaw. “I’m a celeb, dude. If people find out who I am in public, I’m gonna get swarmed.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” Eight looked back at the sidewalk, and then at Callie again. “What name do I, uh, call you then?” She asked. Being a celebrity must be weird.

Callie didn’t say anything for a moment, as if she’d never thought about it. “Hmm, I’m not sure! Normally when I go shopping with Marie we don’t use names at all.” She grinned. “You could always just use ‘One’ or something, I guess.”

Maybe the reason that Callie had asked her to go shopping with her was because she still hadn’t made it up with Marie yet, but Eight couldn’t tell for sure. She decided to put it aside for now, and just listened to Callie hum as they made their way down the sidewalk. 

Eight was too absorbed in her thoughts to notice that they had turned away from the Square instead of going into it. Pretty soon she did, however, and looked around concernedly. She thought they’d be going to Tentakeel Outpost.

“Um. Where are we going?” She asked, carefully slinging one bag over her shoulder, as it was getting too heavy.

Callie giggled. “You’ll see. Nobody’s been texting you, huh?” She said. Eight shook her head in response. 

“Isn’t Three at the Outpost?” Eight tilted her head to the side. 

“Yep.” Callie responded. She wouldn’t elaborate further, even after Eight asked.

They went down a few more blocks, turning every so often, away from both Off the Hook’s house and the Square. Eventually Callie skidded to a halt in front of a very bare and plain looking apartment complex. Eight almost bumped into her, not noticing her stop.

“All right!” Callie spun to face her, almost accidentally swinging one of the bags at her. “Whoops, sorry! We’re here.” She turned again and walked towards one of the multiple doorways. The number beside the one she stopped in front of had ‘96’ written in copper numbers on the door. 

Eight stood back as Callie set down some of her bags and rummaged through a pocket for a key. _ Is this her and Marie’s house? _She looked up and around again. No, too barren and bland to be the place where the Squid Sisters lived, unless it was completely different inside.

After some more fumbling around with her pockets, Callie drew out a simple brass key and inserted it into the lock, opening the door and stepping inside. Eight followed her nervously. She closed the door behind her and looked around, but couldn’t see anything but vague outlines due to the lights being shut off. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, but it was in vain, as Callie flicked just flicked the lights on. Blinking repeatedly to clear the sting of the sudden brightness, walked over to Callie, who was standing in the middle of a very small living room and kitchen combo, sort of like Marina and Pearl’s apartment. Surprisingly, the living room had absolutely no furniture whatsoever. 

“Come, let’s pop all this stuff in the fridge.” Callie said, walking around the corner into the kitchen area and opening up a large white fridge. “I’m no good at organizing fridges. Too bad Marie isn’t here.” She looked over at Eight, who had put the bags down and was looking around at the empty kitchen. “Ah. I guess I should let you know.” She stood up and slipped down her mask. Her face was grim. “Three’s… well… not doing so great, and Sheldon can’t look after her, so she’s moving here.” 

Eight made an involuntary ‘o’ shape with her mouth. “So she’s still sick?” She asked. Three had looked really bad last time she’d seen her, did she get worse? _ She’s not… dying, right? No, can’t be. _

“Sheldon will be arriving with her furniture in his truck in like…” Calle pulled out her bright pink phone. “2 hours. We’ve got until then to get Three and find Four.”

Eight nodded slowly. If they needed to find Four, Eight was pretty sure she knew where she was. Getting Three here sounded like a whole different issue, though. If she was still acting anything like before, she’d probably want to be left alone.

“Does Three know that she’s moving here?” Eight asked, gesturing around in the air.

Callie nodded and closed the fridge, having just finished putting all of the frozen and refrigerated stuff away. “Yep. Help me put away all this dry food and then bring the rest of the stuff in that bag to the bathroom. It’s all toiletry stuff.”

Eight had no idea what ‘toiletry stuff’ meant, but she quickly helped Callie put away the dry food into cupboards and carried the final bag down the hall and into the bathroom that Callie directed her to. It had a simple sink and shower, but no bath, which Eight felt was odd and unfortunate, considering its name, and that she had liked the bath she had had when she arrived on the surface. 

She poured the contents of the bag out. She only recognized a few of the items inside, like toothbrushes and towels, and noticed that there were four of each thing. Not knowing what to do with them, she placed most of them in the cupboard under the sink and the rest on the sink counter. 

“I’m done, I think.” She said, after coming back out to the main hallway where Callie was standing with her mask back on by the front door. 

“Let’s go!” Callie smiled and opened the door. The pair stepped back out into the nearly empty street once again and made their way to the Square.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again! Thanks so much for reading. How was it? Did my new style seem that different/improve things, or is it worse/the same? Let me know in the comments, if you can! I'd really appreciate it. I've been editing and adding things to this for days now, and I know that I just need to get it out instead of hold it back until it's perfect.
> 
> I've been feeling really out of it recently, due to an increased dose in HRT kicking my butt and some other stuff, but I got my pair of plushy Squid Sisters two days ago!! so that's helped my mood a ton.
> 
> Also, I'm starting to draw again, and I've made an alternate twitter/sideblog on tumblr to post my art and my writing. I will link them when I have something to actually show on them (Working on my icon for them right now, but I am very slow in all of the creative things I do).
> 
> Thanks again for reading! Have a wonderful day!


	11. Unfortunate and Upsetting Reunions

Four had tried to have a good week, but things just refused to go her way, as usual. 

The day after she had dropped Eight off after that quarrel with Three, she’d tried to go back to work at Thalassic Aroma, a chain brand coffee shop, only to find out that she’d been fired due to a mass employee cut. A day after that, her phone plan was cut off, and desperate for money, she had gone to Grizzco Industries to make some quick cash, and it turned out that it wasn’t Salmonid season yet and it was closed. Frustrated and in need of food and a place to sleep that wasn’t outside at the Outpost, where Three was currently stealing her bed, she ended up sleeping on her friend Celbern’s couch for the week. He was glad to see her again, and happily let her stay for a while. They spent the nights talking about Four's situation, but Celbern could only really point her towards possible jobs.

Over the next few days, she resorted to playing Turf War, both to keep busy and try to earn enough to pay for food and her phone plan for the end of the month. It didn’t pay very well, as it was mostly aimed at being pocket money, and she kept getting matched on teams with children, so she stopped and went to Ranked. Ranked, despite paying a lot more, went even worse, and she swore that her teammates had never played before, which was ridiculous considering that she was S+ in all modes and her teammates should have been as well. Needless to say, she spent the rest of the week losing repeatedly.

All of that was pretty bad, but yesterday, though? That was a whole other deal. Four had spent the whole day going in and out of Deca Tower, trying to find a job in between Ranked matches _ without a phone _. She was dead tired, frustrated to no end, and feeling defeated on the way back to Celbern’s for the night. Everything had seemed normal on her walk, until she noticed that she was being followed by at least two people. She regretted not taking a side alley path like she usually did.

They stuck on her trail like glue. She didn’t know who they were at first, probably muggers, and rushed to get into Celbern’s house safely. Hoping the pair of muggers had gone away, she had waited by the window and peeked out the blinds. That’s when she saw them. 

Her parents had found her again. 

* * *

“So you saw them again?” Marie asked, twirling her closed parasol slowly. She leaned back in the foldable camping chair that Four had set up for her. They were sitting together on the roof above Off the Hook’s studio in Inkopolis Square, Four’s secret getaway spot. 

Four nodded slowly. Her dark brown eyes were slightly blue, bloodshot from lack of sleep. “I-I… I’ve been crashing at a friend’s house--Celbern’s--, since Three’s, y’know...” She said, reaching up and rubbing her eyes with her knuckles. “Been playin’ Turf War and Ranked, just to keep busy, y’know? It was mostly going okay, until they saw me out yesterday, and followed me back.”

Marie leaned in towards Four. “Did they try anything?” She asked, full of worry. 

“K-kinda. They waited outside for me to come out for about 8 hours. I didn’t let Cel know, he would have freaked. Ended up not sleeping at all. I don’t know what to do anymore...” Four said. She felt close to tears. Why wouldn’t her stupid parents just leave her alone?

Marie reached a hand over to Four’s lap, trying to calm her down. Four held her hand instinctively. She felt a wave of calm wash over her, but her worry still remained. “Listen. It’ll be okay. If they actually try anything-” Marie smiled coldly and drew a line across her neck with her free hand. “Well, they’ll regret it.”

_ But what if they find the Outpost when I go back after Three is gone? What if they find this place? _Four wanted to say, but decided against it and forced a smile. “Thank you.” She mumbled, her mind numb from lack of sleep. They’d only been up on the roof for 10 minutes, but it felt like ages. “Thanks for everything, Marie.” She repeated. Marie had been there for Four when she’d needed it most, and she was here now. Four couldn’t let her feel unappreciated, it was the least she could do in return for her kindness and friendship.

“Everything? Nah, I haven’t done _ nearly _ enough, especially after all you’ve done for me.” Marie said, a guilty look flitting across her face for a moment. “For starters, making you sleep in that cabin is-”

Suddenly she cut herself off as a high pitched voice and a metal clanking noise rang up from the side of the building. Somebody was ascending the stairs towards them.

* * *

Eight and Callie hadn’t walked very far into the Square when Eight noticed that many Inklings, and even some Octolings were staring in their direction. Maybe Callie’s disguise didn’t work? Eight didn’t have to wait long to find out, because almost immediately she heard a large group of nearby Inklings whispering loudly.

_ “It’s her!” _ One of them muttered, a short cropped Inkling boy, trying to motion in their direction without making it obvious, but failed completely.

_ “-That’s that Eight girl-, the one related to Marina Ida!” _ Murmured another, her single long tentacle covering half of her face as she pointed. The entire group stared at Eight with a curious gaze.

Eight’s stomach plummeted like a stone. Of _ course _ that clerk she’d gotten her Turf ID from hadn’t been able to resist spreading the lie Four had told. She looked away, and leaned in closer to Callie. 

“Did you hear-” Eight whispered in her ear, but Callie cut her off. She wished that people would stop doing that.

“I heard them, now where do we go? Let’s hurry it up and get out of here.” Callie said. Eight pointed towards the side of Off the Hook’s studio, and they quickened their pace towards it. 

As they left earshot of the larger groups of Inklings, Eight heard someone say; _ “She’s going to the studio! They have to be related.” _

Eight had to force herself to not break into a sprint. Attention was already the last thing she wanted, and getting it like that was even worse. _ This day was going well… _

“What the heck was that? Why do they think you’re related to Marina?” Callie asked. Eight tried to respond but Callie had already continued talking. “Hopefully Four is actually here, like you said she might be.” She said.

The pair slipped around the corner and Eight led Callie around towards the metal stairs, but not before taking a quick, frightened glance down into the abandoned metro station entrance. Darkness crept out of it, and Eight felt like something was watching her whenever she passed by. She shook it off. _ It’s not the same one, stop acting a fool. _

Eight grabbed the short ladder leading to the top of the building and started pulling herself up, shaking slightly. _ I’m never going to get used to heights, am I? _

“Eight?” A voice called out in astonishment. It was Four. Eight looked up at her in surprise from the top of the ladder; she’d been right, Four was here! She looked disheveled and had grungy clothing on, a far cry from the bright outfits she usually wore. Her long yellow rear tentacles, normally in a ponytail, were loose and hanging down behind the foldable chair she was sitting in. 

Eight’s eyes drifted to the left slightly, and saw Marie sitting beside her, clasping Four’s hands. The green Squid Sister, just like her pink cousin, was wearing a facemask, although hers was currently tucked under her chin.

Eight waved, smiled and pulled herself fully onto the roof, leaving some room for Callie. It was good to see Four again, even if she didn’t know if Four was upset with her or not, considering that she hadn’t shown up to hang out at all, or even texted.

“What’s up, Eight? How’d you know I was here?” Four asked, as Callie grabbed the ladder and started climbing. 

Eight was about to respond, but was again interrupted by Callie letting out a sudden yelp of surprise as she lifted her head over the ladder and saw her cousin. She almost slid back down the ladder, but her eyes snapped towards Four and Marie’s knit hands and her shocked face immediately turned into a sly grin. 

“Why are you two h-” Callie started, completely forgetting that she didn’t want to be around Marie.

Marie abruptly let go of Four’s hands, looking slightly embarrassed for some reason. Her eyes widened, and she cut Callie off abruptly. “What are you doing here, Callie? Finally coming clean?” 

Callie’s visage morphed into one of panic. “Ha-heh-yeah! Nice seeing you Four, gotta go!” She began to hurriedly climb back down the ladder, but didn’t even get down one rung. 

Eight had grabbed her shoulder. Why she did it, she didn’t know, and almost let go in shock at her own behaviour. 

Callie stared up at her in hurt confusion. “Eight? What are you doing?” 

Eight faltered for a moment, but didn’t release her grasp. Instead, she steadied her resolve. This conflict was about her, she was sure of it, and it needed to end. 

“Let go.” Callie said, her eyes narrowing.

“N-no.” She said, suddenly very aware that she was restraining one of the Squid Sisters.

Marie walked over and looked down at Callie, grabbing her other shoulder. “Come up. I’m tired of your crap.” 

Callie appeared like she was going to struggle, but relented and let herself get pulled up. “Fine. We can talk, but it’s going to be-” She glanced at Eight so rapidly that Eight almost didn’t notice. “In _ private _ .” _ Yep, it’s definitely about me. _

“Good enough for me.” Marie smirked. “You’re not leaving my sight until we’ve had a good long chat. Why are you two here, anyway?” 

Callie glared at her and turned to Four. “Why haven’t you been responding to my texts?” 

Four laughed bitterly. “It was my cell plan or food this month.” She said. “I lost my job at the coffee shop, remember?” Eight hadn't heard that Four had lost her job, and had no idea what a cell plan was, but if a lack of one was why Four hadn’t texted her at all, it must be important. She breathed a silent sigh of relief at the realization that Four probably didn’t hate her.

“Oh. Yeah. Oops, I forgot. Well… uh, I have an offer for you!” Callie said, her face lighting up. Eight certainly hadn’t heard of anything of the sort on the way here, what could Callie be on about?

After a bit of a dramatic pause, Callie did her iconic Squid Sister pose and asked, “Do you want an apartment?” rather bluntly.

Four and Marie gawked at her. Eight, now realizing what this was about, immediately felt apprehensive. _ She’s talking about the apartment Three is moving to. This won’t go well. _

“Wh-How- What part of my previous statement did you miss!? I don’t have a job, I can’t pay for one!” Four said, completely bewildered. 

A look of realization dawned on Marie’s face. “You… rented one, didn’t you, Callie? Do you want to get away from me that badly?” 

“No-no!” Callie spluttered, gesturing wildly with her hands. “It’s not for me, it’s for Three, but it has two bedrooms.” 

Four just rolled her eyes. “Ha! You really think I’m gonna move in with _ her _? Get real.” 

Both Callie and Marie looked surprised. “Did something happen? I thought you were getting along.” Callie asked. 

“No, she’s an ungrateful ass.” Four replied. “Last time we talked, she tried to attack me after Eight and I brought her food.” 

Eight spoke up. Four wasn’t being fair, Three was just not handling things well, at least that’s what she hoped. _ Please don’t actually hate me, Three. _ “She’s- she’s hurt, I don’t know if she really means what she-” 

“No, she totally means it.” Four cut her off. Why wouldn't people stop doing that? “Remember how she was acting? Everyone helped her out after she had a freak out and she just continued to be a jerk.” 

_ You did call her ‘Ex-Agent Three’, though, Four. _Eight wanted to tell her off, but she knew it was a mistake. Four probably hadn’t meant to be mean either.

Marie raised her voice slightly. “Listen, Callie and I have known her for a while now. She wasn’t always like this. Something’s really wrong.” She picked up her parasol from beside the foldable chair she’d been sitting in. “I think you moving in together is a great idea, I was thinking of something similar myself. Besides, Three needs looking after right now anyway, when I checked on her last night she was doing terribly.” Callie nodded in affirmation, as she had done the same a day before.

“So there it is!” Four let out a hollow laugh. “You just want me to babysit her because you two are too busy.” 

“No, we’re not busy at all! At least I’m not.” Callie said, giving Marie a sideways glance, who didn’t return it. “This is just- It’s just dealing with two things at once.” 

Four sighed, stood up and started putting away the chairs. “Sure, fine, you’re right that I need a real place to stay.” She walked back. “Let’s say I agree to this… Have you even let her _ know _ that I’d be moving in with her? Also, I _ still _ don’t have a job, and I’m not letting you pay for rent, Cal.”

Callie grinned. “Come on, it’ll be fine, the place is great!” She exclaimed, completely ignoring half of what Four had just said. “Let’s just get going, get Three and we can talk about it more then.” She climbed back down the ladder and started going down the stairs, just slowly enough to assure Marie that she wasn’t running off. 

Sighing, Marie followed her and beckoned the other two. Eight went down last, forcing herself to not look down. 

The group made their way across the Square towards the grate outside of Sheldon’s store. Eight heard the muttering start up again as they passed the main congregation of Inklings, and she tried to block it out, but it was impossible.

_ “She’s coming back…” _

_ “Do you think she’ll say hi if I go up?” _

_ “Who are those people with her?” _

One muttering voice stood out from the rest. _“I know her! She was in a turf war match with me last week, she totally destroyed me even though she lost!”_ It was the Splat Roller user with the flat brimmed cap. Eight’s stomach plummeted even further than before. She had to get out of here, now. 

Callie saw the look on her face and hurried the group up, past the big cluster of Inklings. They stood outside of Ammo Knights awkwardly, suddenly realizing that there was no way they were gonna get into the grate without people seeing them.

“Soooo.” Four started. “What’s that about?” She looked completely clueless.

That did it. Eight was officially irritated. She’d never felt that towards another person before, at least in her limited memory, and it felt awful. She almost couldn’t speak, and her tentacles twitched erratically. “Y-you-... You..” She couldn’t keep going, but fortunately that was all she needed to say for Four to get the message. 

“Oh, sh-” Four brought a hand to her forehead sharply. “I’m such an idiot, this is my fault, isn’t it?” She said.

“What did you do, Four?” Marie asked sternly.

“I… may have told the Turf War signup clerk that Eight’s last name is Ida.” Four mumbled, her face going blue in embarrassment.

Marie brought her own hand to her forehead and just stared at Four in astonishment. “What? Why?!” 

“Uh. The look on the clerk’s face was funny.” Four replied, completely blue now. “I get it, it was stupid. Ugh. Let me fix this.” 

Four turned around and walked towards the big group of inklings. Eight watched her walk over, but couldn’t hear anything that was said. After about a minute or so of Four and the group conversing, someone shouted; “Hey you! Even if you’re not related to Marina you still kicked my ass and that’s cool!” It was the Splat Roller user again. Apparently he was pretty popular, because everyone around him was nodding in agreement. 

Four walked back over, face still slightly blue. “Done. I’m really sorry about that, Eight.” She said. 

“It-it’s fine. You fixed it.” Eight said, still not over the awful feeling that was being upset with Four. She tried to shake it off, to forget about it, but it lingered. There was a bit of an awkward silence as the group waited for the Inklings in the Square to stop staring at them so they could jump into the grate. 

Soon, it was clear to go, and they all hopped into the grate one after another, shifting into their cephalopod forms and disappearing. Eight went last, uneasy with what possibility of what seeing Three again might be like.

* * *

Three felt like death this morning. Not any different from the previous six mornings this week, though. 

The smell of dried blood, poultice and her unkempt body was almost enough to make her sick. A tang of something unnatural and vile also permeated the air around her face, but she couldn’t tell what it was. She rolled over slightly in the tiny cramped bed she’d been stuck in, stomach grumbling. She needed breakfast badly. She reached a hand to her face to see if she’d hurt herself again. Judging by the slight wetness, she’d at least scratched herself in her sleep. She brought her hand down to her chin. Surely enough, the beginnings of a tentacle beard had started to grow. _ Great, just what I need right now. I need to get clean badly. _

Three lay for a few minutes longer, and decided that it was time for her to get up. _ Are you going to let me move properly yet, body? _ She tried to swing her legs off of the bed in the darkness but just ended up hitting the wall, causing her to flinch in pain. _ This stupid tiny cabin is the worst. _

Shakily, she stood up and groped around for the lightswitch, bumping into several things on the walls as she did so. She flinched and froze as something crashed down in front of her. Eventually her fingers found the lightswitch, and turned it on. Three blinked repeatedly as her working eye adjusted to the sharp change in light. She’d knocked a bunch of stuff all over the limited floor space, including a bunch of the fancy Hero weapons that Four had apparently used at some point. The massive Hero Roller had fallen over sideways in front of her and was blocking her from reaching the sliding door. _ Thank shell that didn’t fall on me. _

This place was an absolute pain, why she couldn’t just go back to her place under Sheldon’s store was beyond her. It wasn’t even far, all she needed to do was go down the grate. Maybe Craig wanted her to suffer for being too stubborn -something she’d thought a lot about over the past week in bed-, she didn’t know, but Three didn’t care anymore. She was done with all of this, and she was going back by herself. 

Shoving the Hero weapons aside, she yanked the wooden sliding door open and stumbled out into the daylight. She felt like a caricature of herself, barely able to stand, although it was a lot more doable than it had been last week. Thankfully, nobody was here, besides D.J. Octavio in his glass snow globe, of course. He appeared to be sleeping, as he was turned away towards the short wall. _ I wish that Marie would just move him somewhere less stupid. It’s only a matter of time before he breaks out again. _

Three still had an annoying headache, her skin under the poultice Marie had put last night felt terribly itchy and sore, and the scratches on her face stung against the harsh, cold air of the floating Outpost. She shivered, suddenly realizing that it was freezing outside, and that she was only wearing the pajamas Marie had retrieved from her place. Apparently the cabin, as small and in need of repair as it was, wasn’t that bad at keeping in heat. 

She needed something warm to wear, and remembered that she’d left her Hero outfit behind the cabin a week ago. She shuffled over behind it, and rummaged through a wooden chest, snagging her old headphones, jacket and shoes. After slipping it all on, and almost falling over in the process, she felt that something was off. It took her a second to figure it out. _ Where’s my cape? _

She turned back to the chest and rummaged through it. She didn’t remember putting it in here, maybe it was still in her place down at Sheldon’s or… or maybe she’d lost it. Her hearts immediately beat faster as a panic set in, but she calmed herself quickly. _ It’s just at Sheldon’s. I can go get it. _

That was all the motivation she needed to make her pained way towards the grate, almost unable to keep her balance. 

She shifted into squid form and sunk into the grate, appearing back out the other side in seconds. The Square was especially busy today, she noted, so she quickly slunk over to the sliding glass door of Ammo Knights and walked in, trying to avoid being seen in her Hero outfit. 

Sheldon was nowhere to be seen, which was odd, since it was probably past opening time, although Three didn’t know for sure because her phone was dead. She walked over to the counter and flipped the guard up, walking past and towards the closed door to the basement. She opened it and descended the stairs, noticing immediately that the lights were on, there were two cardboard boxes, and multiple voices were talking… from inside of her room. 

Panic setting in, she almost fell down the stairs in her unbalanced rush to get to the bottom. She almost flew past the door, but caught herself and peered in. Sheldon was there, talking with two burly looking crustaceans. Her entire room was being emptied and packed up, although there wasn’t much to actually pack. 

“Hey! What’s going on here!?” She shouted, causing Sheldon and the two movers to almost jump out of their carapaces. 

Sheldon turned around sharply. “Oh, just in time, Three!” He squeaked, still looking slightly spooked. “Were you not informed of your new living location?” 

New living location? What? She was being moved? Nobody had told her about any of this, and that made her really angry, almost uncontrollably so. “No! Nobody told me a damn thing, least of all _ you. _”

“I texted you this morning, Three.” Sheldon said, looking slightly scared now. Three was very tall and imposing, especially with half of her scabbed face covered in a poultice. “Did you not receive it?”

That just pissed her off even more. “My phone is dead, and even if it wasn’t, that’s_ still _ not enough warning that you’re kicking me out!” She was fuming now, gripping onto the doorway with force strong enough to make her fingers hurt. Three glared towards the two movers, who looked similarly perturbed. “Put my stuff back. Now.” 

“I’m afraid they can’t, Three.” Sheldon said, backing up slightly and raising his tiny arms. “I have renovations to do here in order to expand the weapon testing ground, and there’s already another apartment ready for you.”

Three tried desperately to get herself under control. Her face scar was starting to burn, and didn’t help very much. She wanted to scream. It was all too much. Did nobody care about what she had to say or think? First Craig forced her to stay in that dusty, cramped cabin for a week while she lay there feeling like the living dead with only Marie and Callie as occasional company, and now she was getting kicked out of the place she _actually_ lived at. She was so furious that she didn't hear footsteps coming down the stairs.

“There you are, Three! We were so worried, you weren’t at the Outpost.” Someone said from behind her. Three whipped around, still fuming, and immediately regretted it as she was onset with intense dizziness. She leant against the wall, her head pounding. _ Stop moving so fast, you idiot. _

“Three? Are you ok?” A different voice asked. Three slowly regained her balance and looked up. Callie, Marie, Four and Eight were all standing on the stairway in front of her. They were all staring at Three's dishevelled visage in a mixture of worry and shock. Three saw Eight's eyes drift to the stubble on her chin. She tried not to care.

_ Oh, great. Just the group of people I wanted to see. Not. _ Three didn’t say anything, and just stared at them, trying to keep her face blank. _I probably look stupid, wearing my Hero gear inside. _

After a few more seconds of tension, Callie jumped down the last step to stand in front of her. “I found you a really nice apartment!” She said, waving her hands.

Three glared at her. “So this is your fault! Nobody told me about any of this.” 

Callie opened her mouth to retort, but Four spoke first, surprising Three. “You didn’t even tell her that _ she was moving in the first place _!?” She said, gawking dumbfoundedly at Callie. “This is gonna go so-o-o smoothly.” 

Sheldon spoke up from inside the room, his squeaky voice digging into Three’s brain like a jackhammer. Normally she didn’t mind him at all, but today everything seemed to make her angry. “Ladies, please! Let’s just get this over with. My truck is out the back door, help these two nice movers get all of these boxes packed up and in the back.”

Three had half the mind to keep yelling, to protest, but she gave it up. There was no point in fighting it now. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted one of the movers shoving something tattered and black into a garbage bag. A stylized number three was emblazoned on it. _ My cape! _She’d almost forgotten about it in her anger.

“HEY! Give that to me!” She yelled, running into the room. Startled, the crustacean threw it at her. She tried to catch it, but fell over sideways. Her cape landed on her head, covering her entirely, which was very embarrassing. Equal parts angry and humiliated, she -gently- lifted it off of her head and stumbled out of the room fuming, heading towards the back door, very aware that everyone’s eyes followed her on the way out.

The back door was already ajar, and she rushed out into the back alley. Sheldon’s flying truck was indeed already there like he had said. Three didn’t know what to do with herself now that she was outside. After some indecision, she sat down beside the open door and wrapped her arms around her head.

_ Why am I so angry about this…? Why am I so angry in general? _ She peered at her tattered black cape between the gap in her fingers. She always kept it clean, but she didn’t know how to sew, so it was torn in places. The fading white three emblazoned on it seemed to stare back at her, taunting her. _ I can’t be you anymore. Is that the reason? Is that why I’m filled with so much uncontrollable rage? _As if in response, her teal scar started to sting. She ignored it.

She sighed. Being an agent had become her life ever since she’d left her dusty old hometown and moved to Inkopolis. Meeting the Captain, even if it’d seemed ridiculous and crazy at the time, was the best day of her confusing, miserable life. _ If I can’t be Agent Three, what will I do? I can’t just go back to my family. _Thinking about her family caused Three to flinch. She’d left them for a reason, one she didn’t really want to think about.

Three’s ears twitched as she heard footsteps behind her. She didn’t move as they stopped beside the door and someone looked down at her. 

“Th-Three?” A soft voice said. Three looked up in surprise. It was Eight. The reddish-pink tentacled Octoling looked down at her, and Three sensed something in her eyes. It was apprehension, maybe even fear. _ Why would she… No. I know why. She must be scared of me. _ For a second, Three felt inclined to not care, to get up and walk away, or to snap at her to leave her alone, but she stopped herself. _ Something _ about the Octoling forced her to. Eight’s deep purple eyes pierced into her, as if searching her soul. Three felt her hearts beat faster and her face start to blue. _ Stop it, stop it, stop it. You can’t fall for an Octoling… even if she is pretty. Very pret- No, stop. _Three ripped her gaze away. 

“Yes, Eight?” She asked, finally. _ I should at least be kind to her. I don't want her to be scared of me. _

The tips of Eight’s tentacles curled slightly. It was cute. “I… we need some help p-packing up your bed.” She mumbled. Three felt strangely disappointed. For some reason, she had hoped that Eight would have asked how she was feeling.

_ No fighting it, I guess. I may as well help, it’ll be nice to have a place completely to myself again anyway. _She had had a place of her own before going on that three month expedition with the Captain, but she was forced to move out of it prior to, since the landlord required consistent residence. She hated landlords. 

She got up suddenly and stretched, startling Eight slightly. Remembering that she wanted to be kind to her, she apologized. The pair walked back into the basement of Ammo Knights with Eight in the lead. 

_ Shell, I need a shower. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy!!! Hope you're all having a great day! I'm doing alright, I bought a new pc for the first time since 2013 yesterday and I'm excited for it to arrive. It cost so much money! But I won't need to buy another pc for another 8 years or so, so it's worth (Future-proofing to save money much later on, yknow?). If anyone wants to see the specs lemme know! I'm about to become a certified Gamer(TM) haha.
> 
> I did even more work on my writing style in this one. Maybe it'll be more noticeable this time, lemme know what you think and if you enjoyed the chapter!! I love responding to comments so feel free to leave some if you are so inclined. Also, go check a change in the tags, if you didn't notice already, hehehe~
> 
> Have a wonderful weekend! Bye for now~


	12. A New Home?

Four was genuinely surprised. Informing Three that she was moving in with her had gone nowhere near as bad as she’d thought it would. Currently, they were walking together alongside Callie, Eight and Marie towards the new apartment, and Callie had decided to bring it up suddenly.

“Kay’.” Three mumbled, not looking at any of them. She had been very quiet since she’d come back from her short escape out the back door of Sheldon’s basement. She had helped the movers take apart her sturdily constructed bed, which, according to Marie, Three had made herself. She didn’t seem particularly proud of it, because when it was brought up she seemed to suddenly go deaf. Presently she certainly wasn’t feigning deafness, but she also wasn’t acting very responsive either.

“You- You don’t mind?” Four asked. She had no idea what Eight and Three had talked about when Marie had sent the Octoling out to get her, but considering that it took nearly seven minutes, whatever it was was probably the reason why Three had come back and shamefacedly apologized to the movers and Sheldon.

“I could be dealing with worse.” Three responded, her discontented tone indicating that she did, actually, mind quite a bit.

Four sighed and ignored her jab. Maybe Eight was right, and Three was just having a hard time, or maybe she was just a jerk. _ Maybe she’s just putting up a front to save face. I should ask Eight what happened later. _

Sheldon’s floating truck was already neatly parked in front of the apartment when they arrived. Since there wasn’t much to move, it was all inside in less than ten minutes, although it would have been faster if Three had decided to help, since Sheldon had dismissed the reasonably upset movers in advance. Instead, she had gone off to inspect the apartment, grumbling about something that Four didn’t quite catch.

Now that everything was inside, they got to work moving it all into Three’s new room. Fortunately she had decided to help this time. It was small, although so was every other room in the apartment. Four watched Three out of the corner of her eye as she carried the last few boxes of Three’s stuff into the room. The scarred squid looked distant, somewhat dizzy and stumbled multiple times. Four actually felt bad for her, and regretted what she’d said to her last week. _ This isn’t her fault anyway. I’m sure I’d be just as irritable if I suddenly ended up like her. _

“Alright, nice work everyone!” Callie chimed from the hallway as soon as everything was inside, and Sheldon had driven off. “Now that it’s all in, I’m gonna go off and do some stuff, and then come back and help get some furniture for ya. Stay fresh!” She turned away towards the open door, and bumped straight into Marie. 

“No you don’t, you sneak.” Marie said, placing a firm hand on her shoulder. “Like I said, you’re not leaving my sight till we _have that_ _nice chat_. Remember?” 

Callie gulped audibly and grinned somewhat sheepishly. “Oh-h yeah, right. Let’s go do that first, huh?” 

The Squid Sisters waved quick goodbyes to Four and Eight, and left them alone with Three, who was currently in her new room.

Eight hovered slightly in the empty living room, as if she was unsure of what to do. She’d helped a fair bit with lifting, but hadn’t said a word for nearly an hour. Four walked up to her as Three started unpacking things. Now was as good a time as any to ask her what had happened earlier. She quietly beckoned Eight to follow her to the front door, and they stepped outside momentarily.

“Hey, uh, earlier, when Marie sent you to go get Three… Did you two have a moment or something? She came back a lot calmer.” Four asked. She had noticed the way that Three looked at Eight when she was close, at least when Three wasn’t pissed off of course. She seemed to have a soft spot for her, but Four had no idea if Eight had noticed it yet.

Eight’s tentacles twitched and she didn’t say anything for a moment, apparently perplexed. “Um, a what?” 

“A moment, like- Nevermind, ignore that. What did you two talk about and why did it take nearly seven minutes?” Four asked. She didn’t want to make Eight uncomfortable or out Three, as she’d probably never had anyone be interested in her before. Regardless, Four didn’t even know if Eight liked girls, although to be fair she didn’t know much about her yet.

“Oh-I…” Eight paused, absentmindedly bringing a finger up to one of her tentacles and twirling it. “I only told her that she was needed to… break apart the bed? I don’t know the word.”

“Oh, disassemble.” Four said. “But why did it take so long?” 

Eight whispered back. “I- um… I waited in the hallway for a bit.”

_ Ah. She was probably nervous. _“Oh, yeah. I see.” Four said. She felt bad for prodding her, and decided to change the topic. “Anyway, uh, Callie mentioned earlier that you and her stocked up the fridge and bathroom already. Thanks a ton!”

“Y-you’re welcome.” Eight responded, her tentacles curling happily. “It was her idea, though.”

“I’m just glad that you helped! Let’s go see if Three needs some, herself.” Four said, and they walked back inside, closing the door lightly. 

Four leant around the doorway into the room Three had picked. “Hey, you good in here?” 

“I’d be better if none of this was happening at all, but sure.” Three replied, not turning to face her. Four ignored her tone.

“Need help? Eight and I can uh, unpack the rest while you go have a shower or something. You look like you need it.” Four needed a shower too, but Three smelt, frankly, not that great, and the dried blood on her face didn’t help matters much. Four could wait a bit longer. 

Three’s eye narrowed as if she was about to argue, but just nodded, stood up and walked to the bathroom, which was directly opposite the bedroom Three had chosen, and closed the door with a click. Not even ten seconds later she came back out.

“I can’t have a shower without a towel. I’d rather not be wet for the rest of the night.” She said, an edge to her tone. 

Four turned to Eight. “Oh! You and Callie bought towels right?” She asked.

“Y-yes. I think. I didn’t know where to put most of it, so I put it in the… door under the sink.” Eight responded.

“Nice! Also, I think you mean cupboard.” Four said.

Three walked back into the bathroom again and shut the door behind her as Four and Eight slid into the room opposite and began unpacking things for her.

* * *

Three rummaged through the mess of random bathroom supplies under the sink and drew out a towel, still wrapped in a cardboard strip. She’d need to organize this later, or just let Four do it. Tearing it off, she hung the towel on the door handle and inspected the bathroom as she started undressing. It was cramped, covered almost blindingly white tiles all over and had a small bathtub that doubled as a shower, which annoyed her greatly. _ I better not slip in there, or I’m probably gonna crack my head and die. Might be a blessing in disguise at this point, though. _

Her gaze drifted towards the mirror attached to the cabinet above the plain sink. She instinctively tried to look away, but couldn’t, and inspected at herself loathingly instead. 

She looked repulsive, just as she’d expected. All of the small cuts from when she’d woken up had scabbed over already, the small scars all over her face stood out like a sore thumb, and the poultice had peeled off and fallen to the floor as she’d pulled off her Hero jacket, revealing all the goop-burned and multi-toned teal stained flesh underneath. Her pure white, dead eye stared back into itself, seeing nought. A nasty thought worked its way to the front of her mind. _ Too bad I didn’t lose both eyes. _

She used to like her scars. They had seemed somewhat cool to her before, almost like memoirs or medals for battles she’d survived against the Octarians, but now they just added more of a mess to her marred visage. Bringing a hand to her face, she felt her chin. The beginnings of the tentacle beard she’d noticed earlier made her feel dysphoric. She refused to look any lower than her head, trying to ignore the rest of her body in the mirror.

Unable to look for even a millisecond longer, she tore her head away and flicked on the fan switch on the wall, bringing it to life with a buzzing whirr. She turned on the shower, testing the water before stepping in, but not before grabbing one of the brand new bottles of body soap and a facecloth.

She drew the long shower curtain across the tub and stepped into the shower stream. Hot water flooded over her, almost shocking her with the sudden change in temperature, but she adjusted quickly. She didn’t really like showers, water made her uncomfortable, but with how grimy she was at the moment it was necessary and surprisingly felt good.

Three’s mind wandered as she stood in the shower, slowly and carefully cleaning herself while trying not to fall over in the slippery tub, which was hard considering that she didn’t really have much control over her balance at the moment. It really needed a non-slip mat. 

She thought bitterly about how miserable the last week had been, curled up in that terrible cramped cabin on a miniscule bed while dealing with constant headaches and stinging pain from her scar for hours until she passed out. Fortunately, her recurring nightmare had only happened once, and nobody but Octavio had heard her yell as she woke up clawing at her own face. Not that she cared what he thought anyway, his opinion mattered less than nothing. _ Stupid creep. _

Did the Captain really want her to suffer for no longer being fit to be an agent? Or was it because she’d been insubordinate and rude? Maybe he’d just forgotten about her, but that wasn’t like him nor would it explain why Callie and Marie hadn’t let her go down to her now ex-home, although she’d not asked to after trying to leave the first time a week prior.

Three shook the thought away. None of it made sense, she’d just need to ask them. 

“Ack- Fff-” She lost her footing on the tub basin as she yanked the soapy cloth away from her face, wildly reaching out to grab the curtain bar to steady herself. Her cuts stung- no, wait, her goop-burned scar did. It lit up like fire, and she crouched down in the tub in agony, letting the water run over her face to clear away the soap, hoping that the pain would stop if it was gone. It didn’t. It burned more intensely than it had in days, reaching down through her skin and bringing a now all-too-familiar headache back to life. She felt tears streaming from her eyes but they never appeared, mixing with the shower water immediately. _ Not now, why now? Fuck-fuck-fuck- _“FUCK!”

“Three?!” _ Shell- I yelled out loud- _

The voice grew louder as Four ran up to the bathroom door. “Three, what happened?” 

Three desperately wanted to say it was fine, to make Four go away, but the pain was getting unbearable, and she couldn’t open her mouth, lest she start screaming. 

“Three! What happened?!” Four repeated, her voice distorted by the shower and bathroom fan. “I-I’m coming in, even if there’s no curtain-” 

_ No- _But Four had already opened the door, striding into the steamed-up bathroom and stopping in front of the shower curtain. “Are you okay? Did you fall?

Three still couldn’t respond. She clutched her stinging face and didn’t move, feeling absolutely pathetic. _ Go away, go away! I don’t need your help- _

“I’m gonna turn off the water- I won’t look.” Four said, her voice wavering. She reached past the opaque shower curtain with one hand and turned the dials. “I-We found some of your spare clothes while unpacking, I’ll leave them on the sink.” 

Three listened quietly, her scar pain finally starting to lessen, as Four deposited the clothes on the counter and shut the door. 

Slowly and painfully she slid herself out of the tub and stood up, shaking. Her headache hadn’t faded at all, even if the fire in her scar did. _ Damn it. _Grabbing the towel, she dried herself off, squeezing out the water that her tentacles had absorbed. Three looked up at her face again and grimaced. That stubble needed to go. Maybe there was a tentacle liquifier in the bundle of supplies under the sink? Fortunately, after a bit of searching, there was -unexpectedly thoughtful of Callie, although maybe she’d been thinking of Four too-, so she quickly used it and put it away behind the mirror cabinet. 

Desiring to get away from the mirror, Three quickly put on the plain t-shirt, underwear and sweatpants Four had left her. She picked up her Hero outfit, stepped out of the bathroom and looked around uneasily, spotting Eight and Four in the opposite room. Both of them were sitting on the edge of Three’s mattress on the floor, their hands halfway through the last box. They snapped their heads around to look at her as she opened the bathroom door, and froze. 

Awkward silence ensued, and none of them knew what to say. Rather quickly, Three got tired of standing still, so she walked into the room. Something was off. “Where is it?” Three felt panic rise, she’d left her cape in the room and it wasn’t anywhere she could see. “Where did you put it?!”

“Where’s _ what _?” Four asked, alarmedly glancing around her, and pointed to her left, where a bunch of Three’s things were laid out. “Maybe it’s here?” 

Three rushed over and looked through it. Some spare clothes- Her broken Hero headset, some old personally burned music mini-discs and their accompanying pocket player, her dingy old ukulele- no, her cape wasn’t here. Her mind buzzed violently as her headache reached a peak- as if it was about to burst from her forehead.

“Are-are you looking for this?” A soft, timid voice spoke from behind her, breaking through the buzzing in her head. She whipped around. Eight was holding her arms outstretched, holding something. Three’s cape- all folded up neatly. Something in her wanted to lash out and grab it, but she stopped herself. Eight seemed to have noticed a change in her expression, though, because her eyes widened in shock and she drew back slightly.

“I- Yes, thank you.” Three took it gently and placed it on the ground beside her. She felt embarrassed and remorseful for acting so erratically. “I’m… I’m sorry.” Slowly, she started to calm herself down and simultaneously her headache mostly subsided. 

Eight just nodded, and sat back down, looking away. To relieve the awkward tension, Four stood up and stretched, pointing at the dismantled bed in the corner. “Let’s get that all set up, yeah?” 

The three of them got to work, putting it back together piece by piece and dragging the mattress on top. Four got in the way multiple times, and Three felt her anger prick up again, but she controlled herself. She was too tired and humiliated to bicker now. Three’s sheets were old and in need of a wash, so she shoved them into the old washer and dryer set in the tiny, cramped boiler room at the beginning of the hallway. She’d put them on later, apparently Callie and Eight had bought some detergent.

They also put together the small desk that had been able to fit into the back of Sheldon’s truck, placing most of Three’s things around it. She would need a wardrobe, but it wasn’t a rush. She didn’t own much clothing anyway.

“You play?” Four asked, placing the aging ukulele next to the wall. 

The question took her by surprise. “I’ve not played in years- I’d probably be terrible if I tried now.” It was a lie, she had played often up until her trip to Mount Nantai with the Captain.

“I used to play the drums, back in school. It was fun.” Four said, reminiscing. “Music teacher was an ass, though. Hated his guts.” 

“They tend to be.” Three responded shortly. She glanced at the ukulele. Maybe she should play again, but not here, and certainly not now.

Once everything was in its temporary place, Four took the time to have a quick, five minute shower, and emerged wearing the same grungy clothes, although her longer rear tentacles were back up in her usual ponytail. “I’ll need to grab all of my good clothes soon- I store them at a friend’s house and behind the cabin at the Outpost.” She said while stifling a yawn, drying off her tentacles and tossing her towel into the dryer on top of Three’s sheets. Three hadn’t noticed until now how tired she seemed, as if she’d gotten no sleep at all.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the front door, announcing that Callie and Marie had returned to start working on getting furniture- except that Callie hadn’t- it was just Marie. 

“Hey.” Marie said, placing her bag down and pulling down her mask. “Ready to come get some stuff, Four? It’s on me, honest.” 

Four glanced around behind her confusedly. “Callie said she’d be here too, where did she go?” 

Marie grimaced for a moment. “We- had a bit of an argument. I told her I’d take care of this, she’s off doing whatever she wants to do, I guess.”

“Oh. I see. Yeah.” Four turned around to Eight and Three. “You two wanna come? It’ll be a blast!” 

Three, very much wanting some time alone, shook her head roughly. “No.”

“But you’re living here too, you should get a say in what furniture and appliances we get-”

“I really don’t care, whatever you pick is fine. Just don’t get anything made of glass.” 

Four was slightly annoyed, but nodded. “No glass, _ oookay _. You coming, Eight? Can also drop you off home if you’re tired.” 

Eight brightened up, she had seemed a little bored and probably wanted to do something. “Yes, I would like to come. I will go home later, though.” She said, walking over to put on her shoes. 

Within a few minutes, Four and Eight had departed with Marie, leaving the door locked and Three finally alone. Alone to herself- and to her thoughts.

* * *

As it turned out, Marie could drive, and owned an old, somewhat box-like grey van, which she said was by preference because she liked the storage space and ‘manual gear’; whatever that meant. 

Eight had never been in a car before, and it scared her at first. The rumble of the engine and constant shaking as they made their way up and down the bumpy and cracking paved streets of Inkopolis reminded her of the train down in the Metro, but she shook it off. It also smelled pretty bad, although apparently that was normal for ‘gasoline’.

Eventually, she got used to it, and even started enjoying looking out the window at the colourful variety of people going about their days -including some creatures she’d never even seen before-, or at the other cars, which generally looked a lot newer and smaller than Marie’s. She’d never been this far into Inkopolis, and the buildings towered even higher than near the Square. It was quite intimidating, but also exciting.

The trio began to flit about from thrift store to pawn shop at Four’s request, mostly looking for bed-frames and kitchen appliances. The interior of each store amazed Eight, all of them stocked full of unique, strange and colourful things, most of which she had no idea the names or uses of. 

Four kept refusing anything too pricey, saying that she would be paying Marie back for everything and didn’t want to owe her money. Marie pressed her, though, and together they decided on a nice double-size bed-frame that was already put back into its box, an old toaster, an electric kettle and a small, stainless-steel coffee maker. Often, Four would ask for Eight’s opinion on things, to keep her involved. The Octoling usually didn’t know what to say or suggest, but it was fun to help choose nonetheless.

Marie and Four had a bit of a scare when they turned around and noticed that Eight had suddenly disappeared, only to find her cowering behind a bookcase full of random cutlery after she was spooked by a set of used blenders. Needless to say, _ that _ caused for an early end to the search for appliances and cutlery in that particular thrift store. After some consoling, they were back at it again, and after an hour or so they’d filled up a small box in the back of Marie’s van with some cutlery, plates, bowls and cups. 

Lastly, it was time to go get Four’s mattress, which Marie staunchly argued _ had _to be brand new, because there was no telling what nasty things a used mattress could hide. Eight shivered at the thought of sanitized Octarians hiding inside her mattress; which Marie quickly told her was impossible and there could only be bugs. Not much better, in Eight’s eyes. 

They arrived in front of a fancy looking store, titled with a large, blue font that said ‘RiverBeds’, and had a cartoony mattress with Inkling eyes as a mascot. 

“This place is far too fancy, Marie, I can’t pay for this.” Four said, as she stepped out of the van. 

Marie sighed. Four wasn’t getting away with it this time. “That’s because you’re not, you dork. I’m buying you the nicest mattress in there, you’re _ not _ paying me back, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“But Marie-” Four began, raising a hand in protest.

“No butts. Think of it… as an early birthday present or something.” 

Four relented and smiled. “Alright- Fine. Thank you, Marie. You’re the best.”

Eight silently giggled to herself. It had been a strange day and she was getting tired of lugging things about, but it was nice to listen to the two squids talk and banter. They seemed to really get along, despite only having known each other for a few months. _ If only I had anything to say... _

They stepped inside, passing a clerk on the way in, and Eight felt like she was transported to another dimension. Blindingly white mattresses were set up all over the vast, open room, as if she was floating above the clouds. She loved clouds, they made the sky she loved looking at so much far more interesting. 

“The double-size ones seem to be over there.” Marie said, pointing to the left corner of the room. They made their way over and Four started inspecting the mattresses, lying on them to see if they felt good. Eight sat down on one and fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. _ I kind-of want to bounce on them- but I would definitely get in big trouble. _

Her mind wandered and she gazed off into nothing, content to be sitting on something that wasn’t the stiff back seat of Marie’s van. _ The surface sure is strange. Strange, chaotic- and a little bit scary; but beautiful and interesting at the same time. I should really thank Four and Marie for taking me with them- _

“Eight- Hey Eight! Time to go.” Four poked her cheek, causing her to jump and fall backwards onto the bed. “Oop- sorry! Were you daydreaming?”

Eight, a little bit flustered, shook her head and stood up. “N-no! Just thinking.” 

“‘Bout what?” 

“Oh, um, just that I’m happy that you brought me. I’ve had fun!” 

Four chuckled. “I’m glad you did! Shopping isn’t my favourite thing- but it can be fun and I’m never gonna say no if it’s with friends. Also like, this time it’s pretty important.” 

Beckoning Eight to walk with her, Four led her towards Marie, who was talking with the clerk at the front of the store, who was pointing at a computer monitor that Eight couldn’t properly see.

“Yes- that one, does it come with sheets? No- Alright then. You carry pillows at least, right- okay, thanks, I’ll have two of those.” Marie and the clerk talked at rapid speed, to the point where Eight stopped understanding some of the Inkling words. 

Not even five minutes later, Marie had paid and they were lifting a rolled up mattress and two pillowcase-less pillows towards the van. Four seemed to be struggling slightly with the mattress, but wouldn’t let either of them carry it for her when they asked. 

“Can’t believe they don’t have sheets or pillowcases there. Ridiculous.” Marie muttered, brow furrowed in irritation. “You’re a mattress store, for cod’s sake, act like one. Anyway- seems like we’re gonna have to make one more stop.” 

They got back into the van and prepared to leave, but suddenly Eight’s phone buzzed, startling her. Marina had sent her a text. 

> DJ_Hyperfresh | 6:34 PM 
> 
> Sup, Eight! How’re you? When will you be back? Pearlie and I just got home and were thinking of ordering dinner tonight, we’re exhausted ;__; Any preferences? 
> 
> 605-888-6286 | 6:36 PM
> 
> Hi. i am good. Marie took four and i shopping for furniture. Four and three are moving in to a house together. Were almost done. I will be back in an hour i think. Maybe pizza again?
> 
> DJ_Hyperfresh | 6:37 PM
> 
> Woah!! That’s exciting, tell them both I said congrats! We’ll order pizza when you get here. Cya soon. <3

Eight smiled to herself, excited at the prospect of eating pizza again. She’d had it for the first time a few days ago and she loved it- apparently there were lots of types, too. Remembering what Marina had just said, she showed her phone to Four, who had decided to sit beside her in the back seat. 

“Oh! Tell her I said thanks. It kinda feels surreal, haha.” She said. “I mean- both that I’m actually getting my own place, sorta, and also that Marina from Off the Hook is congratulating me.”

Marie chuckled from the driver’s seat as she turned the van on. It stuttered to life, spooking Eight. She still wasn’t fully used to it yet. “Oh, are Callie and I not surreal anymore? We’re pop stars too, y’know.” She gave a playful half-smile and started reversing the van out of it’s parking spot.

Four let out an indignant noise, her face flushing slightly. “I- Marie, you know what I mean!” 

“I do, silly, I’m just squidding ya.” 

Letting out a loud, mock sigh, Four turned her head back to Eight and gestured at her phone. “Oh, Eight, you don’t have a username on your texting app. You should make one, it’s fun! I’d, uh, show you the new one I chose last week but- y’know. No plan, _and_ my phone is dead.” 

Eight was genuinely confused. Username? What? _ Does she mean- Oh! _Her eyes widened. “Do you mean like-” She pointed at Marina’s DJ_Hyperfresh name on her phone screen. “Like this?”

Four nodded. “Yep! Lemme show you where you do it.” She took Eight’s phone and tapped at it while the Octoling watched. Quickly, a separate screen and keyboard came up. “Type it in here, I can help ya if you don’t know what to choose. I’m great at it!”

Staring blankly at the screen, Eight pondered for a little bit, but nothing came to her. 

“How about… ‘8gent’? Oh! Maybe ‘TheGr8Agent8’? What about-” Four kept going, listing off lots of very silly names that didn’t make any sense to Eight in the slightest. “No? None of those? Hmm. Do you listen to any music? I used to have one that referenced Pearl's old-” She cut herself off abruptly. “Maybe I shouldn’t mention that one, it’s a bit…”

_ Music… I don’t remember much music besides the Calamari Inkantation and the songs that Marina and Pearl have played for me- _ Eight’s eyes lit up as she remembered something. _ Wait, I do remember- _A slow, steady beat came to life in her mind, quickly followed by the low, calming hum of a synth. The song that had kept her sane during some of the most stressful and painfully slow tests down in that awful, awful Metro. Tests that were the cause of an uncountable amount of the times she’d been blown up by that blasted ink pack. 

She shuddered slightly and felt a slight sting prickle up her stained and injured back, as if it was reacting to her thoughts, but she pushed it aside. She wanted to remember this song, for herself, and for_ them _. “Can I use Octarian?” Eight asked. 

Four nodded. “It’ll let you, I think. It might just not show up super well on other people’s phones unless they have the language installed- I don’t know how common it is up here, to be honest. I should really do that myself, when I get my plan back.”

“Thanks.” Eight said, and started typing. It took her a minute to swap from an Inkling keyboard to the Octarian one Marina had installed for her, but she figured it out and inputted her new username.

** _#8_Regret_ **

“What’s that say?” Four asked, quizzically. “I recognize the hash at the start, it’s just like the inkling one, but…”

Eight had to stop herself from automatically saying it in Octarian, and cleared her throat. “Number eight regret.” 

“That’s a bit… depressing? I’m guessing it’s an Octarian song?”

Eight half nodded. “Uh… Sort of, I guess. It is a song, yes.”

“You should show it to me sometime. I like listening to new music.” Four said, and tapped Marie on the shoulder. “Hey, we should really take Eight home after we grab the sheets and pillowcases, or after we put together my bed.”

A quiet fifteen minute drive and a short visit to a general store later, Marie pulled the van up in front of the apartment building. When they entered, each carrying a box of things, it was apparent that Three had already gone to sleep. The lights in the hallway were off, and her door was closed. 

As quietly as they could, they unloaded the rest of the stuff, and set up Four’s new bed in the furthest bedroom. 

“I think that’s enough for tonight- I’m tuckered. I can organize and set all of this stuff up tomorrow.” Four whispered. “Thanks so much, Marie- If you can, tell Callie how much I appreciate her for finding and paying for this apartment. I’ll pay you both back asap, promise.” 

“Take your time, it’s not like we’re gonna run out of money, we’ve got a lot saved up. There’s a lot more you still need for this place to be functional, but that can wait till another day.” Marie replied. “And I refuse payment for a majority of this- I honestly feel really bad, making you, and _ her, _” She jerked her head towards Three’s closed door as they tiptoed past. “Stay in that garbage cabin. I’m glad that Callie was proactive and did something about it.”

Four went in for a hug. Eight noticed that she was starting to tear up. “Thank you so much.” She repeated. “I don’t know what I’d do without you two and Cel… Probably still be on the move, I guess.”

“H-hey! Don’t think about that, Four. You’re fine now and that’s what matters.” Marie said, stiffly hugging her back, slightly blue-faced.

Four was full on crying now, but it wasn’t out of happiness or appreciation. “Wh-what if _ they _ find me here? They found me last night- they could have been following us the whole time-”

“Shhh, you silly squid. Don’t worry about it. If, and I doubt that they will, find you again before you get your cell plan back, get Three to text me and I will rain _ so much _ pain down upon them they'll wish they'd never come here.” Marie said, her golden eyes narrowing as she flashed her pointed fangs. 

Eight felt lost for a moment, but slowly remembered what Four had said about her parents. _ That’s the ‘they’ she must be talking about. _She felt the sudden urge to comfort Four as well. 

“Text me if it happens, too.” She said, giving Four as best a smile as she could. 

Suddenly, in a rush of motion that left her winded, she found herself caught in a group hug. “Th-thank you, E-Eight.” Four sniffled. “Feel free to c-come over any time, even unannounced.” She hugged the two taller cephalopods for a moment longer, and let go. “Have a good night, you two. I’m gonna make myself something to eat and join Three in hitting it early, I’ve been up for way too long.” 

After some more teary goodbyes from Four, Marie and Eight stepped back outside into the cool evening air and drove towards Marina and Pearl’s apartment.

It was a quiet trip, although Eight kept trying to urge herself to ask what Marie and Callie had fought about, and what Callie had been hiding. She couldn’t do it, mostly due to a welling of anxiety. Nonetheless, the trip was pleasant enough, and over before she knew it. Marie let her out towards the familiar back alley and waved goodbye. 

“Have a good night, Eight. Maybe I’ll see you again tomorrow if you visit Four and Three.” Marie said, and almost rolled up the van’s window before stopping and beckoning Eight back over. “Whoops, sorry, one sec.” She brought out her phone. “We should add each other, just in case.” 

Her hearts pumping and tentacles curling, Eight quickly brought out her phone to type in Marie’s number and give the idol hers. 

“Cool, see ya squi- octo. Stay fresh.” Marie said, striking a mock pose, and drove off. 

A burst of both excitement and panic struck Eight. She’d just swapped phone numbers with one of the Squid Sisters! Oh, but what if she said something dumb- or missed a call, or Marie didn’t recognize her and blocked her- No, she massaged her temple and banished those thoughts away. None of those things would happen. Marie probably wouldn’t even text her outside of emergencies anyway.

A hop to her step, she made her way back home, to her good friends. It was time for pizza, and a long nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyooo! Hope you've all had a wonderful week, and Merr Chrysler to those of you that celebrate it. I may have been up like, idk, all night, so I finished this off since it was nearly done. I am exhaaaauusted, and it's my own dang fault. ;-;
> 
> I'm trying to improve on my style gradually, changing up formatting for texting and trying to work on bettering my characterization of canon characters. 
> 
> I snuck a little reference into the part where Eight chooses a username for her texting app. 'TheGr8Agent8' is the username Kia619's Eight uses in her fic series Angstgent 24 - Go read it, it's fun! Thanks for chatting with me and helping me with some writing process stuff, by the way, Kiaria, it's nice talking with you :3c
> 
> Also! Since I know nobody will probably catch this- the final four digits in Eight's phone number (6286) can spell out OCTO on a flip phone's keypad!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Leave a comment to tell me what you think if you want, and visit my socials to get updates or talk with me if you'd like. Just a warning, though, I mostly RT/RB random stuff on my mains, so I made art focused, RT/RB-less (and very empty right now, sorry! I'm a slow artist) alts that I will also share fic updates to when I post them.
> 
> Main Tumblr: Arvallen.tumblr.com | Alt Tumblr: Arvallart.tumblr.com
> 
> Main Twitter: @arvallen_ | Alt Twitter: @arvallart


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